*By Conor White*
After losing $136 billion in market cap in less than a week, Facebook is looking for ways to reinvigorate its outlook at a time of slowing ad revenue growth, [continued fallout](https://cheddar.com/videos/facebook-stock-crushed-after-disappointing-earnings) from the Cambridge Analytical data privacy scandal, and the [latest revelation](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/31/us/politics/facebook-political-campaign-midterms.html) Tuesday that it's detected attempts to influence this November's midterm elections.
"It's been a long 2018 for Facebook," said Madison Malone Kircher, an associate editor at New York Magazine. "Which brings us to the one thing Facebook is doing right, and that's the Stories platform. It works really well on Instagram, which Facebook owns, and they've really been trying to push to make it work on Facebook."
Instagram Stories has 400 million daily users, double the number of users of rival Snapchat, and Facebook has been trying to lure advertisers to the Stories platform.
Kircher said in an interview Tuesday with Cheddar that neither of the social media companies has figured out how to make user-generated stories on their platforms profitable.
"Snapchat, which is the creator of this style of posting, has also struggled with it," Kircher said. "They rolled out a new platform called 'Commercials' this week, which is similarly trying to figure out how to sell ads against this style of content."
In the end, Kircher said Facebook can push Stories to advertisers all it wants, but it won't be successful until it's popular with users.
"It's a two-fold problem Facebook has," Kircher said. "One, trying to convince advertisers to buy ads in this space, but first they have to figure out how to get us to use it."
For more on this story, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/facebook-pushing-stories-feature-to-advertisers).
Jack Dorsey is stepping down as CEO of Twitter. In a statement, he says he is leaving because the company is ready to move on from its founders. Twitter's chief technology office Parag Agrawal will take over as CEO. Ian Sherr, editor at large at CNET, joins Cheddar News to talk about the announcement.
Visitors in Santa Monica are now getting a whole new look into the new metaverse world. Starting on December 1st, the Downtown Santa Monica District Is Getting Fully Immersed in AR and VR. It's All in Partnership with 'Flick Play' which is the first-ever 'Play to Earn' Metaverse App that Basically Takes the Gamification of 'Pokemon Go' and combines It with more social aspects of an App like Tiktok. Founder of the FlickPlay App Pierina Merino, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
On a platform as massive as TikTok, there are bound to be some negative implications. While we know that social media sites can have harmful health effects for teens and adolescents, the research on TikTok's health effects is slim to none. Skye Barbic, assistant professor at the University of British Columbia joins Cheddar News.
If your kid was on Santa's "nice list" this year, maybe you're willing to shell out $1,900 for Tesla's new Cyberquad. The automaker's all-electric ATV for children 8 years old and up is available to order now and is expected to begin shipping in two to four weeks.
Grab, a Southeast Asia-based ride sharing, e-wallet, and delivery service, made its public debut on the Nasdaq via SPAC merger. CFO Peter Oey joined Cheddar's Brad Smith to talk about the IPO and why it was an ideal time for the company to go public. Oey noted that while Grab operates in 465 cities in eight Southeast Asian countries, there is still more opportunity to grow and expand while balancing profitability and growth.
Voltus is going public by combining with a special purpose acquisition company, Broadscale Acquisition Corp., in a deal that values the electricity market technology startup at about $1.3 billion dollars. The company aims to deliver less expensive, more reliable, and more sustainable electricity to its more than 600 customers, including Home Depot, Coca-Cola, and Simon Property Group. Gregg Dixon, co-founder and CEO of Voltus and Andrew Shapiro, chairman and CEO of Broadscale Acquisition Corp., joined Cheddar News to discuss the deal.
On this episode of Cheddar Innovates: Kemtai Co-Founder breaks down how computer vision and artificial intelligence can improve your workout form; Wove Co-Founder explains how it's creating a one-of-a-kind engagement ring design process; A look at Curiosity Stream's 'History By The Numbers.'
Mike Telem, Co-Founder at Kemtai, joins Cheddar Innovates to discuss how the platform is using computer vision and artificial intelligence as a virtual personal trainer through a laptop's camera, and how this technology can be adapted for physical therapy.
Fintech company Square, led by the now-former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, will undergo a name change to Block as it expands its product offerings and goes beyond just a payment processing platform into blockchain and crypto spaces.
