*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).
Allstate's partnership with Uber to provide drivers with commercial auto coverage now encompasses four states, including some of the New York market. The expansion hedges against a possible future where fewer car owners means fewer individual policies, said Tom Troy, executive vice president for Allstate's business insurance unit.
Tamara Warren, automotive journalist, said that Mercedes's new electric SUV is the first of what will be many luxury electric cars, and Tesla's about to get a lot more competition.
Will Uber hit its self-imposed deadline to file for an IPO in 2019? Joshua Franklin, IPO and private equity correspondent for Reuters, said it's on track.
Sachin Kansal, Uber's chief safety officer, told Cheddar about the new features rolling out to Uber drivers that were built with their feedback in mind. The announcement comes on the one-year anniversary of Dara Khosrowshahi taking over as the company's CEO.
Wednesday is a busy day on Capitol Hill. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey are testifying before the Senate as questions grow over foreign influence and fake news. Plus, Brett Kavanaugh returns to Capitol Hill to face questions from lawmakers in day two of his confirmation hearings. And we sit down with Tiffany Pham, CEO and founder of the website Mogul, to discuss how women can succeed in business.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know.
Bjørn Kjos, CEO of Norwegian Air, said the demographic is the most important customer the company has. The company just reported 13 percent growth in traffic in July.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg are testifying in front of the Senate. Dana Wollman, acting Editor-in-Chief of Engadget, tells Cheddar what these executives have to say to satisfy both lawmakers and investors.
Sascha Segan, mobile analyst at PC Mag, spoke with Cheddar about Samsung's plans to debut a "foldable" phone, as well as to unveil improvements to other mid-tier devices.
Samsung announcing that consumer will be seeing a flexible phone by the end of this year. Sascha Segan, lead mobile analyst at PC Mag, joins Cheddar to discuss what this innovation means and why the company is looking to improve the technology of its mid-tier phones.
