Why it matters: Lite versions of apps have long been popularized by companies like YouTube and Facebook. These focus on emerging markets where a combination of limited data speeds, patchy connectivity and wide use of low-end devices are prevalent. Spotify, the world's largest streaming music platform, looks to cement its position by targeting such markets with an official Lite app that it's launched for Android devices in 36 countries.

Spotify is having a great year, and the music platform looks set to gain more audience in emerging markets as it launches a Lite version of its app on the Google Play Store. Coming in at just 10MB with support for devices running Android 4.3 or later, the company claims that 90 percent of the features on its main app would be available on the Lite version, which had been in beta since last year.

Both paid and free users of Spotify can use the app, which comes with a mobile data control feature to notify users when they're about to reach their monthly limits. Important features like artist and song search, music discovery and playlists, as well as saving favorites and sharing them, are all present with notable exclusions being video and cover artists which the company believes aren't needed for the core app experience.

The 36 countries where Spotify Lite has launched can be found here. "Spotify Lite is now available in 36 markets across Asia, Latin America, Middle East and Africa on Google Play with more markets and features to follow as we continue to improve the Spotify Lite experience," the company notes.

Apparently an iOS version is not on the cards, reports TechCrunch, suggesting that Android owners are most likely to benefit from the stripped-down version of the app. As of March 2019, the music platform reported 217 million users with 46 percent of them being paid subscribers (100 million). Expect to see these figures rise steadily as emerging markets with their big audiences contribute to the company's growth.