The world's first webcam was invented by scientists at the University of Cambridge in 1991 to monitor a shared coffee pot. In 1993, when it was connected to the internet, it unexpectedly became a mainstream hot product. Its popularity relied entirely on word of mouth, without the help of search engines or social media, which foreshadowed the large-scale popularization of the internet and also indicated that people were eager to apply emerging technologies to everyday trivial matters, demonstrating the transformative potential of the technology.