First-order effects

• Indian users on low-end Android devices and constrained data plans get a lighter-weight way to use LinkedIn, lowering the cost of joining and staying active on the network.
• The 60+ country roadmap turns what was an India-specific experiment into LinkedIn's default lightweight client for emerging markets, putting the app in front of users LinkedIn's main app priced out.

Second-order effects

• Facebook's own cycle — shutting down Instagram Lite worldwide, then testing a revamped Instagram Lite in India months later — shows rivals treat India as the proving ground for lite apps, so LinkedIn's move pressures other professional-networking players to field their own low-bandwidth clients rather than cede the segment.
• A larger active base in India feeds LinkedIn's monetization surfaces there, from job search to the freelance marketplace it took global after a US beta, giving recruiters and employers a bigger talent pool to target.

Third-order effects

• If the pattern holds, 'Lite' stops being a side project and becomes the standard entry tier for global platforms in connectivity-constrained markets — with full localization (language, pricing) as the mandatory second step, as LinkedIn's own Hindi addition illustrates.
• Emerging markets like India increasingly set product architecture for the rest of the world: apps designed for cheap Android hardware and metered data get exported across the 60+ country footprint rather than adapted after the fact.