LinkedIn introduces Lite version in India

LinkedIn is attempting to lure smart-phone users in the country who are facing issues of poor connectivity and has launched a ‘Lite’ version of the website designed specifically for mobile browsing.

Nestling over 37 million users, India has become LinkedIn’s second largest market followed by the United States. Microsoft Corp’s LinkedIn announced on Monday that the version was rescuing consumers from slow network to load faster.

At the event in Delhi, CEO Jeff Weiner shared that LinkedIn’s Lite service does away with things like extra graphics and rich media to download four times faster than LinkedIn’s basic mobile site. The company claims the homepage only takes up 150 KB of data, and further pages 70 KB.

LinkedIn Lite has entered late into a market that has witnessed numerous attempts to grow usage numbers in India by meeting their mobile data demands: whereas the large majority of people in India, which is the world’s second largest smartphone market after China, use mobile phones rather than computers to access the internet, more generally data is very expensive for the average user, and connectivity is not as fast as desired.

The social networking site claimed that ‘LinkedIn Lite’ will load four times quicker and also will have a better user experience in both urban as well as rural areas and will roll out in a few weeks.

Recently, social media giants like Twitter and Facebook too have introduced their lite versions of their portals as apps which consumes lesser data thus gaining more users. Along with this update, the portal also launched- LinkedIn Placements and LinkedIn Starter Pack.

The placement oriented apps will aid students to hunt for jobs while the starter pack is directed towards start-ups and mid-sized businesses to get connected through the application. For LinkedIn Placements, the network has partnered with HackerRank, as well as Aspiring Minds, Co-cubes and Wheebox to empower users to list their skills and interests which will then be matched with the right employers.

LinkedIn Lite could change the way, the professional networking website is used in India.