LinkedIn Announces LinkedIn Lite, Placements & Starter Pack in India for Job Seekers, Students and Startups

LinkedIn’s mobile app used to be a terrible one and finally the company decided to revamp the application to take on other similar social media apps. However, LinkedIn still operates in a very niche area and the company has been trying to improve the situation.

The California-based company has launched three news products, two of which cater to specific audiences. The first one, LinkedIn Lite is the stripped down mobile version of LinkedIn’s desktop site, and as it goes by the name, the mobile version will be extremely light on use.

“India is a vital market for LinkedIn, as we work towards realising our vision of creating economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce,” said Akshay Kothari, Country Manager and Head of Product, LinkedIn India

LinkedIn Lite loads four times faster and has better usability on India’s mobile networks. The company will officially launch the Lite version in the coming week. It was a much needed step taken by LinkedIn to offer a simpler experience in India.

LinkedIn has also launched LinkedIn Placements – in partnership with HackerRank, Aspiring Minds, CoCubes and Wheebox – to provide a one stop shop for online tests for students. The scores from these online tests will then be matched to the job available on the portal. This service will also have study material for students to learn from.

This is an impressive start from LinkedIn to provide the students a platform to showcase their skills and develop a skill. The tests seem to be focussed on software only right now but the company will expand them to other skills such as finance, business, marketing and operations.

The final product from the company, LinkedIn Starter Pack is more like a social networking website for businesses. Businesses on LinkedIn will be able to grow themselves through direct marketing and affiliate themselves with other businesses as ways to grow.

Do these services even matter?

LinkedIn’s primary objective was to connect individuals across various domains and industries. While it does what it says, the services don’t really come in very handy at times. For example, job seekers do not find LinkedIn any better than job portals out there.

A lighter version of LinkedIn might allow more professionals to join the platform, but the purpose won’t be met unless there is quality on LinkedIn. Clickbait posts are still very common on the website and often one comes across fake recruiters building a repository of contacts.

LinkedIn Placements may also not be as big as one expects it to be, simply because the tests are not considered a benchmark for many recruiters and in the end the job seeker might miss out on a chance to get that desired job. It will, however, help users gain knowledge of tools and skills to take on industry leaders.

Finally, Starter Pack will only engage businesses if LinkedIn has enough job seekers to offer on the website. Unless there are people willing to listen and contribute, this feature might become dormant in a few years.

LinkedIn needs to understand the dynamics of the job industry in India, which is still driven largely by company specific HRs and job portals like Naukri.com and Monster Jobs. Other social media like Facebook and Twitter are also used widely for promotion and marketing purposes, and LinkedIn will have a tough time overtaking these.