Companies
28/06/2018

Facebook Quietly Launches Instagram Lite Aimed At Emerging Markets




The emerging markets is critical for the growth and success of Instagram and hence the Facebook has come up with a new and adapted version of the market.
 
In a quite launch, Instagram’s owner Facebook launched “Instagram Lite” for Android phones was put up at the Google Play App Store. No announcement was made by the company of the launch 
 
“The Instagram Lite app is small, allowing you to save space on your phone and download it quickly” the description reads.
 
Compared to the size of 32 megabyte main app of Instagram, the new version sis very light at only 573 kilobytes. The new app will allow users to filter and post photos to the feed or Stories, watch Stories, and browse the Explore page. But it lacks the options of sharing videos or direct messaging to friends.
 
Some of the problems of users in the developing and emerging markets such as possessing of older models of phones that have less storage space, slow internet connections or unaffordability of large data packages are addressed by Instagram Lite. Additionally, being light, the new version would eliminate the need for users to possibly deleting photos or other apps for installing Instagram Lite.
 
It was last month that Instagram had launched its rehashed mobile website which is also designed for the developing and emerging markets.
 
Instagram Lite began testing in Mexico this week, a spokesperson for Instagram told the media. The company released a statement to the media that said: “We are testing a new version of Instagram for Android that takes up less space on your device, uses less data, and starts faster.” There is no mention of whether ads would be included. The company has also announced that more countries would get the new app and addition of video posting capabilities would be done later this year.
 
The “Lite” trend has picked up steam recently. In 2015, Facebook Lite was launched and the number of users reached 200 million by 2017. And in April 2018, Messenger Lite was also launched. Earlier this month, a Lite version of its app was released by Uber.
 
Last week, Instagram announced that user number of 1 billion active monthly users was reached by its IGTV. The app has seen large growth with over 100 million active users have been added every four months and much of that new users originate from the developing and emerging markets.
 
Instagram and WhatsApp’s clones of Snapchat Stories have managed to garner large user bases in emerging economies like India and Brazil partly because Snapchat neglected these international markets and only focused on US teens and left those markets open for its rivals.
 
Emerging market might see even faster adoption of Instagram Lite. If ads are included, the new version can also potentially score revenue from Lite. And with the development of phones and internet connectivity, the company can hope of shifting the users of Lite to the main version.
 
(Source:www.techcrunch.com)

Christopher J. Mitchell
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