Following in the steps of Facebook, LinkedIn has launched a lite version of its mobile web and smartphone app for developing markets, including South Africa.

The professional networking platform, which has over five million users in the country, launched LinkedIn Lite in more than 60 countries across the world in Africa, the Middle East, Asia and South America.

“LinkedIn Lite is a lighter, faster version of our flagship product and includes all key features such as news feed, profile, networks, messaging and notifications, so our members can stay informed, get ahead in their careers and be more productive,” the company said.

Three years ago, Facebook launched a lite app version.

The LinkedIn Android app is less than 1MB in size and can reduce data usage by as much as 80%.

“The catalyst for LinkedIn Lite was a field research trip about a year ago in Nashik, a small city about 100 miles from Mumbai where broadband challenges prevented page loading. To address this, the app was developed for mobile web and rolled out to all Indian members earlier this year with quite remarkable impact. Not only does the site load five times faster, but job applications on the mobile website have quadrupled since the launch of LinkedIn Lite in India. Additionally, more than half of new members now sign up on mobile, so this has become a huge enabler for professionals in smaller cities in India to sign up and get connected,” LinkedIn said.