Twitter Lite offered to users with poor data connections
Micro-blogging platform Twitter is rolling out a quicker and lighter version of its main website today in a bid to draw more traffic from regions cursed with sporadic or patchy mobile data networks.
Twitter Lite forms part of a drive to target growth in previously untapped emerging markets with the initiative and can be loaded on a standard web browser without the need for a dedicated app.
Despite a pared down back-end the user experience remains well-nigh identical to the full fat version we’ve all grown accustomed to and follows the successful launch of bare bones alternatives for the likes of Facebook, which has been operating its own Lite service since 2015.
Keith Coleman, Twitter's vice president of product, commented: “We didn't feel like we were reaching these other countries well enough, and this will allow us to do it faster, cheaper and with a better experience than we've had before.”
It is estimated that a by making a few tweaks behind the scenes Twitter can slash data consumption on its web product by as much as 40%, rising to 70% when more aggressive data saving measures are switched on.
Twitter is desperately playing catch-up with the social media kingpin and sees fast-growing markets across India, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and Indonesia as one route toward achieving that.
It is not alone in this however with Google also announcing a stripped back version of YouTube targeted at the Indian market while Facebook is even trialing a solar powered plane capable of bringing the most remote corners of the globe online.