LinkedIn launches Lite app to tap tier-II cities

LinkedIn, the social network for professionals, has launched a ‘Lite’ version of its Android app in India. This will work on slow data networks and lowend smartphones, as it looks to tap job seekers outside the large cities. The solution is much like those of Facebook and Google’s to get around India’s patchy networks.

“We’re seeing a massive amount of traction, especially outside of metro cities. If you look at some tier-II, tier-III cities, the Lite website really lit up a lot of them for us. We’re seeing almost two times the number of people from those towns on the website in the past six months,” said Akshay Kothari, head of LinkedIn in India. Developed at the company’s research centre in this city, Lite will take under 1 MB of storage space on a device and reduce the consumption of data by 80 per cent when compared to the regular app.

Kothari says LinkedIn has 42 million users in India and wants to expand to 80 mn, equivalent to the number of professional jobs the country has today, as soon as possible. For the next 40 million users, the firm is betting on tier-II and tier-III cities.

“The more people in tier-II and tier-III towns that have access to LinkedIn, the more they are aware of the jobs in India and the more efficiently the labour can then move. From the time I’ve been on the field, I’ve seen people are open to moving if they find the right opportunity but are not aware of those jobs,” added Kothari.

Plans of rolling out LinkedIn in local languages isn’t on the cards yet. Currently, the 80 mn professionals the firm is going after can manage without regional languages. However, once the firm breaches this barrier, Kothari says, it would look at including local language.