Like with all things in which we over-indulge, Twitter is launching its diet version, Twitter Lite.  On Wednesday, Twitter announced the unveiling of the slimmer, more data-usage-friendly mobile service, pointing out that though smartphone usage grew to just under 4 billion connections at the end of last year, 45% of those connections are still on slower 2G networks. 

To combat the slow load time and data expenses that accompany bulky mobile apps, this new mobile-only, lite version will weigh less than a megabyte. The service will be available in 42 global languages. 

To be clear, Twitter is not launching a new mobile app. Lite is accessible on a mobile web browser at mobile.twitter.com.  So Twitter has simply redesigned the mobile version of their site to be less burdensome than the app and has slapped the label “Twitter Lite” on it in order to attract new users with a shiny new brand. ‘Try Twitter Lite!’ sounds much better than ‘Go back to the mobile version.’

Using Google’s Progressive Web App suite, Twitter created Lite to decrease data consumption by over 40% using simple basic JavaScript. As it is fashioned to mirror the appearance and feel of the Twitter mobile app, most Western users would hardly notice a difference in user experience. However, those in emerging markets would benefit highly, which is precisely who Twitter is targeting with this new endeavor. These market users are joining what founder Jack Dorcey calls the “realtime conversation with the world.”

According to The Hindu, Twitter lags significantly behind Facebook in mobile-usership. In considering India’s 1.3 billion users, Twitter timed its launch to coincide with India’s Twenty20 tournament, a major Cricket event that would generate mounds of social traffic.