*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).
As VC funds shovel money into start-ups, they have noticeably stayed away from Juul, even as it exploded in growth and catapulted to become the most valuable vape brand. Erin Griffith, correspondent for the New York Times, said investors appear to be taking a moral stand, even as they simultaneously invest in other nicotine-delivery products.
SoundCloud announced Tuesday that it is expanding its "Premier" feature, which takes a focus on the scores of musicians who use the service to record and promote their work. CEO Kerry Trainor said this feature will allow artists to be directly monetized on the platform, and it will rival any process at other streaming services like Spotify or Apple Music.
Google's Pixel event kicks off on Tuesday in New York City. The company is expected to announce three new phones, with one costing upwards of $1,000. Russell Holly, Senior Editor at Android Central and Ajay Kumar, Mobile Analyst at PCMag, give their predictions for the future of Google's hardware ecosystem.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that Google had exposed over 500,000 Google+ users' data and failed to alert authorities. The company ultimately said it would shut down the consumer version of the social network. Douglas MacMillan, the reporter who broke the story for the Journal, said Google's handling of the information is causing a lot of speculation about the tech giant's business practices.
Grocery delivery has a new player in Los Angeles: Milk and Eggs. This service connects consumers with farmers and food producers, and the food is delivered straight from the source, made fresh for every order. Kenneth Wu, CEO and founder of Milk and Eggs, said that unlike Walmart and Amazon, his company is able to completely eliminate the grocery store.
The tech giant made its decision after reports that the data of about a half million users of Google+ had been exposed. The company reportedly chose not to disclose the bug for fear of repercussions. Google said there was no evidence the information was misused.
Acclaimed music producer, DJ, and entrepreneur Steve Aoki is dipping his toe into comic books. At New York Comic Con Aoki debuted 'Neon Future,' his comic debut.
With sites like Priceline, Kayak, and Travelocity helping consumers find cheaper flights in-the-moment, Hopper is going one step further, letting customers know when to wait to buy an airline ticket by predicting when prices will go down. With a new round of funding, Hopper is going all in on artificial intelligence technology, helping consumers find the cheapest flights possible, said Dakota Smith, the company's head of growth and business.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know.
