In a relatively short time, you managed to become a recognizable brand on the Macedonian market. How and when did the story of Gley.tv begin and what is the reason for its success so far?

Gley is the first Macedonian national SVoD platform that offers the best domestic and regional series and movies in one place, as well as European and worldwide hits. An inevitable part of our platform is the children’s content, which is completely translated or dubbed into Macedonian and Albanian.

The idea of ​​Gley was born at a time when, as a necessity of the evolution of the way of watching content among viewers, leaving the linear way (television) and using various streaming platforms (YouTube). Similar platforms like Gley already exist in the world and regionally, but in our market we are the first to massively bring online streaming with the monthly subscription model to the masses.

The shortage in our market was related to 2 “moments”. The first one is the lack of a platform of this type that will primarily focus on local content, while the second one is children’s content. Unfortunately, most of the content that children “consume” is not in their native language, which is why we are faced with generations that do not speak their native language properly because they are constantly exposed to the English language.

We are trying to provide a solution for these two shortages in the market, which will present a variety of programs in one place, fully translated into Macedonian and Albanian, children’s content in their mother tongue through synchronization, and of course all of this can be watched online without ads.

The platform is available worldwide. With enabled access through a web browser on a computer, special applications for iOS and Android mobile phones and tablets, and smart TV. The content available in different regions varies, taking into account broadcast rights, but we are constantly working to make as much of it as possible available to as wide an audience as possible.

The functionality of the platform is taken care of daily by 10 employees and numerous external collaborators, each a specialist in their field of work.

A novelty that you brought to the Macedonian market is a subscription-based payment model that has existed on the world market for a long time. How many total subscribers have used this payment method so far, how well is it accepted here and is it difficult to implement?

The subscription payment model for services worldwide is already well known and elaborated. And in our market, users are familiar with it. For the most part, we had no problem with the implementation and communication about the payment method. What we faced is that we may have underestimated the percentage of the population that is familiar with online payments, as well as the confidence to leave their payment card data. That’s why we decided to dedicate a little more to educating our subscribers about the security of online payments. Fortunately, as a partner in this we found the Macedonian E-commerce Association.

If you had to pick one win that sets Gley.tv apart from the rest, what would it be?

I could not single out one team victory. I believe that despite the successes we have, we are still “at war”. I can only say that I am proud of the team that unreservedly and faithfully works to achieve the goals of Gley, which is bringing content in a modern and simple way to the widest audience, as well as our participation in strengthening and developing domestic production.

How does it feel to be part of the e-comm world? How much is Gley.tv affected by the development of technologies, the dynamics of trends and changing consumer habits, and how do you imagine e-commerce in the future?

Gley as a digital platform is inseparable from the world of e-commerce and considering that it is a technological innovation, adapting to consumer habits is our priority. Of course the goal of any technology company is to create consumer habits, not just follow them. We believe that we are part of the drivers for the development of e-commerce in the country, which, although it is gaining momentum from year to year, still has room for its improvement.