Today it's an undeniable reporting tool for anyone with a phone that runs on seedy editorial ethics but is a torching vehicle for truth to power.
"You have to look at the good stuff, the bad stuff, and the ugly stuff in one page," O'Denat says in a new documentary from the Verge.
"It's a battle cry," he adds about the phrase "World Star!" as often heard from the lens of its amateur content creators. Usually before two dudes fight outside a nightclub.
It's a compelling, borderline inspiring oral history from a Queens, N.Y., high school dropout turned media mogul.
Screengrab via The Verge/YouTube