On 'Re/code Decode,' Betaworks CEO John Borthwick Predicts the Future of What Shows Up on Your Phone (Podcast)

Are publishers going to push all their content through platforms like Facebook or Snapchat? Will they make their own apps too, like the New York Times and BuzzFeed? What about putting stuff on the mobile Web, straight-up?

Betaworks CEO John Borthwick, who a runs a "startup studio" with a plethora of companies working in this space, doesn’t think standalone apps are going away. On this week’s episode of "Re/code Decode," Borthwick tells Peter Kafka why, and talks about missed opportunities and great potential for publishers and social platforms.

"You need to have an app. You need to invest in mobile strategy," Borthwick said. "Clearly for some publishers, the platforms are becoming the firehoses from which they can drink."

Borthwick, who spends a lot of time thinking about the way tech and media evolve, is currently obsessed with notifications — the seemingly inconsequential alerts your phone sends you, if you let them. Borthwick thinks these are a big deal — so big that he organized a conference dedicated to talking about them. You can watch videos of conference sessions here, featuring executives from Slack, Salesforce and elsewhere; and if you want the shorter version of that chat, listen to the first few minutes of his chat with Kafka.

Later on in this week’s episode, Kara Swisher and The Verge’s Lauren Goode dig into all the different TV streaming boxes and what they offer, and Kurt Wagner explains this month’s daily fantasy sports controversy.

If you like what you hear on "Re/code Decode," you can also head over to "Re/code Replay," an archive of audio content from our events and interviews by Kara Swisher, Walt Mossberg, Peter Kafka, Ina Fried and more. We’ve already published about 30 episodes from past events, including all of the Code 2015 sessions, and we’ll add more over time.

Every episode of each show will be available in two places: On our site at http://recode.net/podcasts and on Apple iTunes (here for "Re/code Decode" and here for "Re/code Replay"). We’ll be adding more distributors soon and new episodes weekly. And you can follow @recode on Twitter for updates on upcoming guests.

If you like what we’re doing, please write a review on iTunes — and if you don’t, just strafe Kara on Twitter. You can also suggest guests for the show there and we’ll try our level best to nab them for a Red Chair interview.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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