JP2002041757A - Virtual article providing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve the problem that an article should actually be circulated to grasp the circulation of the article in the marketing of the article and the problem that it requires much trouble to send questionnaires to consumers. SOLUTION: This system, which provides information regarding the article for users through the Internet 40, is equipped with a virtual article managing device 20 having a virtual article issue part 122 which issues a virtual article including article attached information regarding the actual article while having value to be exchanged for the actual article to a user meeting specific virtual article issue conditions, an actual article acquisition processing part 126 which manages whether or not the virtual article that the user has is exchanged for the corresponding actual article, and a preference characteristic management part 134 which obtains user's preference characteristic information by monitoring how the user handles the virtual article according to virtual article possession information wherein the user and the virtual article that the user has are related.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a system for providing information on a product via the Internet.
In particular, the present invention relates to a system that provides a user with a virtual product as product information.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, the Internet has been dramatically developed. A service provider who publishes a Web page on the Internet adds various services so that as many users as possible can use their services. As an example, there is a service for issuing a point to a user who uses a specific content for exchanging for a product or discounting a purchase price of the product.

[0003] A company that provides a product sometimes markets how it is being accepted by consumers in formulating a business strategy for the product. conventionally,
This was done by examining the distribution situation of the product in the market or by taking a questionnaire to consumers.

[0004]

The points issued to the user are merely numerical values, and are only a guide for the user until commodity exchange. In addition, it is desired to realize a technology that gives a user a valuable thing different from the conventional point system so that the user can utilize the service more and refer to the Web page of the service provider more. Was.

On the other hand, in order to grasp the distribution of goods, it is necessary that the goods are actually distributed. In addition, taking a questionnaire to consumers required a great deal of effort.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a virtual commodity providing system capable of solving the above-mentioned problems. This object is achieved by a combination of features described in the independent claims. The dependent claims define further advantageous embodiments of the present invention.

[0007]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a system for providing information on a product to a plurality of users via the Internet, which has a value that can be exchanged for a real product. A virtual product issuing unit that issues a virtual product including product accompanying information on a real product to a user who satisfies predetermined virtual product issuance conditions, user identification information for identifying the user, and a virtual product owned by the user A virtual product possession information holding unit that records virtual product ownership information in association with virtual product identification information that specifies a virtual product, and a real product that manages whether to allow exchange of a virtual product owned by a user with a corresponding real product. A product acquisition processing unit that monitors the handling of the virtual product by the user based on the virtual product possession information, thereby acquiring the user's preference characteristic information; It comprises a virtual commodity management apparatus and a management unit.

[0008] Here, the "real product" refers to a real product, for example, a product provided by a participating company participating in the present system. The “virtual product” is represented as an icon or an image on a computer, and is associated with the “real product”. The “commodity incidental information” may be, for example, a product name or a maker name of “real product”.

The virtual commodity management device includes a market reaction information acquisition section for acquiring market reaction information for each real commodity based on the user preference characteristic information acquired by the preference characteristic management section;
The apparatus may further include a preference characteristic notification unit that notifies a real product provider that provides a real product that can exchange at least one of the preference characteristic information and the market reaction information with a virtual product.

[0010] The preference characteristic management unit, which is obtained from the virtual merchandise possession information, indicates selection information indicating the user's selection of the virtual merchandise, and indicates that the user permitted to exchange for the real merchandise has obtained the real merchandise. The preference characteristic information of the user may be acquired further based on at least one of the actual product acquisition information and the attribute information of the user.

The virtual goods issued by the virtual goods issuing unit can be exchanged between users, and the virtual goods management apparatus can exchange the virtual goods between a user who offers to exchange virtual goods and another user who accepts the exchange. The virtual product exchange processing unit for exchanging virtual products by rewriting the virtual product possession information held by the possession information holding unit may be further provided.

The preference characteristic management unit may calculate each user's preference characteristic information for the actual commodity based on the virtual commodity exchange processing between the users.

[0013] When a virtual commodity is exchanged between the users, the market reaction information acquiring unit compares the virtual commodity presented by one user with the virtual commodity presented by the other user, and thereby the two products are exchanged. May be calculated to further obtain market reaction information for each actual product.

[0014] The virtual product issuing section may include means for determining a virtual product to be issued based on at least one of the preference characteristic information and the market reaction information.

The real product acquisition processing unit has a real product acquisition condition holding unit that holds real product acquisition conditions that define conditions necessary for obtaining a real product by exchanging virtual products, and a virtual product issuing unit. May further include means for determining the number and type of virtual products to be issued based on the real product acquisition conditions and the virtual product ownership information.

[0016] The real product acquisition condition held by the real product acquisition condition holding unit may be a condition necessary for obtaining the real product, that is, when a plurality of types of virtual products are owned in a predetermined combination.

The virtual product issuing unit sets virtual product ownership restriction conditions relating to at least one of the number and type of virtual products that can be owned by the user, and issues virtual products according to the virtual product ownership restriction conditions. And means for doing so.

The virtual product issuing section may issue the virtual product together with introduction information for introducing information on the real product corresponding to the virtual product.

Here, the "introduction information" is a link or a banner to a Web page in which information on an actual product is described.

The virtual merchandise management device includes an proximity measuring unit that measures proximity information indicating a user's proximity to a state that satisfies a condition for issuing a virtual product to a user; When the value becomes a value, a virtual product existence notification unit that notifies the user that the virtual product is ready to be issued may be further provided.

A method of providing information on a product to a plurality of users via the Internet, the virtual product having a value that can be exchanged for a real product and including product-related information on the real product is converted into a predetermined virtual product. Step of issuing to the user who satisfied the issuance condition by exchange, step of exchanging the issued virtual goods between users, and real product acquisition for the user who satisfied the real product acquisition condition for acquiring the real product Processing step.

A recording medium storing a program for causing a computer to execute a procedure for providing information on a product to a plurality of users via the Internet. This program has a value that can be exchanged for a real product.
Issuing a virtual product including product-related information on a real product to a user who satisfies predetermined virtual product issuance conditions, user identification information for specifying the user, and virtual for specifying a virtual product owned by the user Recording the virtual product possession information in association with the product identification information, managing whether to allow the user to exchange the virtual product owned by the user with the corresponding real product, and based on the virtual product ownership information Monitoring the handling of the virtual product by the user to obtain the user's preference characteristic information.

The above summary of the present invention does not list all of the necessary features of the present invention, and sub-combinations of these features may also be included in the present invention.

[0024]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, the present invention will be described through embodiments of the present invention. However, the following embodiments do not limit the claimed invention and have the features described in the embodiments. Not all combinations are essential to the solution of the invention.

(First Embodiment) FIG. 1 shows a first embodiment of a virtual commodity providing system 10 according to the present invention. In the present embodiment, the virtual merchandise management device 20 is connected to the Internet 40. Further, one or more user terminals 30 are connected to the Internet 40. The virtual merchandise management apparatus 20 provides merchandise information including advertisements related to merchandise provided from participating companies participating in the present system in the form of a Web page. The product information need not be related to the actual product. Virtual product management device 20
Provides the information provided to the user by the system operator who operates the present system in the form of a Web page. Web
Information provided as a page can be acquired from the user terminal 30.

When a predetermined condition is satisfied, a virtual product is issued to the user. The virtual product is the user terminal 3
0 is represented as an icon or image on the monitor. The virtual product is associated with a real product provided by the participating company. The user can acquire a corresponding real product by collecting issued virtual products.

Note that the virtual merchandise includes merchandise-related information indicating the merchandise name and maker name of the corresponding real merchandise. The user who owns the virtual product can view the product accompanying information by a predetermined operation such as clicking on the virtual product displayed on the monitor. Further, the virtual product includes, as introduction information, a link or a banner to a Web page that introduces the corresponding real product. The user can know details of the actual product by clicking the link.

FIG. 2 shows an example of a real product corresponding to a virtual product. Case 1 is to get one virtual product,
This is an example of a case where a corresponding real product can be obtained. In this example, one virtual can coffee is issued as a virtual product. The user who has obtained the virtual canned coffee has the right to obtain the canned coffee corresponding to the virtual product in the real world.

Case 2 is an example of a case where a corresponding real product can be obtained by collecting a plurality of divided virtual products. In this example, a part of the virtual canned coffee divided into four parts is issued to the user as virtual goods. When the user has aligned all four parts, the user gets the right to get the corresponding canned coffee. In this case, the virtual product is not necessarily divided into four parts, but may be divided into any number. In addition, the virtual product does not have to be equally divided.

Case 3 is an example of a case where a real product corresponding to a completed virtual product can be obtained by collecting predetermined parts. In this example, as virtual goods, virtual car parts (virtual car body, four virtual tires, virtual key)
Is issued to the user. In this case, the user obtains the right to obtain a car corresponding to the virtual car by collecting all parts.

FIG. 3 shows an outline of the virtual merchandise management apparatus 20. The virtual product management device 20 includes a product information management unit 106,
It has a user request management unit 108, a user trend management unit 110, a product information DB 100, a user DB 102, and a virtual product DB 104. The product information management unit 106 manages the presentation of product information provided by participating companies and the like to users. The user request management unit 108 manages various instructions from the user terminal 30 to the virtual merchandise management device 20 and processes based on the instructions from the user terminal 30. The user trend management unit 110 manages the user's trend by analyzing the user's or the user's preference for the actual product based on how the user handles the issued virtual product.

The product information DB 100 holds information on product information provided by participating companies and the like. The user DB 102 includes user identification information (user ID) for identifying the user, attribute information such as the user's gender and birthday, operation history of the virtual product by the user, preference characteristic information indicating the user's preference for the real product, and the like. Will be retained. The virtual product DB 104 holds virtual product identification information (virtual product ID) for specifying the virtual product, user operation history for each virtual product, market reaction information indicating user evaluation for each virtual product, and the like.

Hereinafter, the configurations of the product information management unit 106, the user request management unit 108, and the user trend management unit 110 will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 4 shows the configuration of the product information management unit 106. The product information acquisition unit 112 acquires product information from a participating company or the like, and records the product information in the product information DB 100. The product information presentation unit 114 reads out product information recorded in the product information DB 100 and presents the product information to the user terminal 30. The presentation of the product information here is not the product information itself but a heading of the product information. This allows the user presented with the heading of the product information to select the acquisition of the detailed product information. When the acquisition of the detailed product information is selected, the product information presentation unit 114 transmits the selected detailed product information to the user terminal 30. Product information includes ads,
It may be included in a Web page for advertisement.

FIG. 5 shows the configuration of the user request management unit 108. The attribute information acquisition unit 116 acquires the attribute information of the user from the user terminal 30 and records it in the user DB 102. Here, the attribute information of the user is the birthday of the user,
Gender, hobbies, favorite foods, etc.

The user request receiving unit 118 is a user terminal 3
After receiving the request from 0, an instruction is given to each component for appropriately performing the received request. For example, when a virtual commodity exchange is instructed, the virtual commodity exchange processing unit 12
Send instructions to 4. The processing performed by the virtual commodity exchange processing unit 124 will be described later.

The virtual product issuing unit 122 is provided for the user terminal 30
Issues a virtual product to the user when the virtual product issuance condition, which is a condition for obtaining predetermined product information, is satisfied. In addition, the virtual product issuance condition may specify that the date when the user acquires the product information is a special day such as the user's birthday or Christmas.

Further, the virtual product issuing unit 122 may set a limit on at least one of the number and types of virtual products owned by the user. For example, if the number of virtual products that can be owned by the user is up to 10, no new virtual product is issued to a user who has 10 virtual products. In this case, the user may discard the virtual product owned by the user to obtain a new virtual product,
By acquiring real products, virtual products may be reduced. Accordingly, the user is expected to perform a predetermined operation based on the necessity and priority of the virtual goods owned by the user. As a result, user operations such as exchange of virtual products necessary for grasping user trends and discarding of virtual products are promoted and activated.

In addition, a limit may be imposed on a period during which a virtual commodity can be owned. Thereby, it becomes necessary to exchange virtual goods within a predetermined time limit, and the exchange of virtual goods becomes more active.

The number and type of virtual products to be issued may be determined at random, but may be determined as follows.

(When Determining Virtual Commodities to be Issued Based on Preference Characteristic Information and the Like) The type and number of virtual commodities to be issued to the user are determined based on the user's preference characteristic information and market reaction information described later. . For example, from the preference characteristic information,
If the preference of a specific user is known, the type of virtual product to be issued is set according to the preference. Further, for example, when it is found that a certain virtual product is popular based on market reaction information, the number of issued virtual products is increased so as to be distributed to many users, and conversely, By reducing the issuance of virtual goods, the value of the virtual goods among users may be increased.

(When Determined Based on Ownership Status of Virtual Merchandise Owned by User) In order to acquire real merchandise, it is necessary to satisfy real merchandise acquisition conditions. The actual product acquisition conditions are
It is determined that a real product can be obtained by collecting a plurality of virtual products as in the case 2 or the case 3 described above. The virtual merchandise is determined by the real merchandise acquisition conditions and the virtual merchandise ownership information indicating the status of the virtual merchandise owned by the user. For example, based on the real product acquisition conditions and the virtual product ownership information, when a certain user has only one remaining virtual product required until the user acquires the real product,
The virtual goods other than the remaining virtual goods are determined. By doing so, the user is forced to select a virtual product of low importance from the virtual products owned by the user and exchange the virtual product in order to acquire the real product. This makes it easier for the user to grasp the degree of interest in the virtual product.

Another example of the flow until the virtual product issuing unit 122 issues the virtual product is shown in another diagram.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart until the virtual product issuing section 122 issues a virtual product. First, when the user acquires the product information, it is checked whether the virtual product issuing condition is satisfied (S200). If the virtual product issuance condition is not satisfied, the virtual product is not issued (S220). If the virtual product issuance condition is satisfied, it is checked whether the virtual product ownership restriction condition is satisfied (S230). If the virtual commodity ownership restriction condition is not satisfied, the virtual commodity is not issued (S220). If the virtual product ownership restriction condition is satisfied, it is determined whether to determine the virtual product based on the preference characteristic information and the like (S23).
0). When the virtual product is determined based on the preference characteristic information or the like, after the virtual product is determined (S270), the determined virtual product is issued (S280). If a virtual product is not determined based on preference characteristic information, etc.,
It is determined whether to determine a virtual product based on virtual product ownership information or the like (S250). When determining a virtual product based on virtual product ownership information or the like, after the virtual product is determined (S260), the determined virtual product is issued (S260).
280). If the virtual product is not determined based on the virtual product ownership information or the like, the virtual product is determined randomly (S
270), the determined virtual product is issued (S28).
0).

Here, the description returns to FIG.

The virtual commodity exchange processing section 124 processes exchange of virtual commodities between users. This allows the user to
Of the virtual goods owned by the company, virtual goods that are no longer needed or have low importance can be exchanged for desired virtual goods. In case 2 described above, the user needs to collect all parts in order to obtain canned coffee, but the issued virtual product is not necessarily a necessary part for the user. Therefore, the user may use the virtual commodity exchange in order to quickly collect all parts necessary for obtaining the virtual commodity desired by the user.

The real product acquisition processing unit 126 performs a process according to an instruction to acquire a real product from a user who satisfies the real product acquisition condition. The actual product acquisition condition is held by an actual product acquisition condition holding unit (not shown).

In the process of acquiring a real product, processes such as delivery of the real product to a location designated by the user and issuance of a ticket that can be exchanged for the real product are performed. The virtual merchandise used for real merchandise acquisition no longer belongs to the user.

The virtual product possession information holding unit 128 monitors which virtual product the user owns. For this reason, each user is assigned user identification information (user ID) for specifying the user, and the issued virtual product also has virtual product identification information (virtual product ID) for specifying the virtual product. Assigned. User ID
By associating the virtual product ID with the virtual product ID, the virtual product owned by the user can be known. These data are stored in user D
B102.

The proximity measuring section 119 and the virtual commodity existence notifying section 120 notify the user that the virtual commodity is about to be issued. The functions realized by the proximity measurement unit 119 and the virtual product presence notification unit 120 will be described later.

FIG. 7 shows the configuration of the user trend management unit 110. The preference characteristic management unit 134 converts the user's preference for the real product into data as preference characteristic information based on the user's handling of the virtual product recorded in the user DB 102. The preference characteristic information is recorded in the user DB 102. The market response information acquisition unit 136 calculates, as market response information, how the real product is received by a plurality of users based on the preference characteristic information. As one of the methods of calculating the market reaction information, there is a method of calculating based on the exchange of virtual goods between users. For example, virtual product A
Is exchanged for one virtual product B and two virtual products B, it can be considered that the value of one virtual product A and the value of two virtual products B are equivalent. The exchange value per virtual commodity B is obtained by calculating the exchange value ratio with the virtual commodity A. The exchange value ratio of the virtual product B to the virtual product A is 1/2 = 0.5. Therefore,
It can be seen that virtual product B has a value of 0.5 virtual product A. Conversely, it can be seen that the virtual product A has a value of two virtual products B. By obtaining the exchange value ratio for the exchange of various virtual commodities, the popularity of real commodities can be ranked.

The preference characteristic notification section 138 notifies the obtained preference characteristic information and market reaction information to participating companies and the like.
Thereby, the participating companies that have obtained the preference characteristic information and the market reaction information can know the trend of the user or the consumer for the real product without going through the distribution of the real product. Participating companies that know the trends of consumers can refer to the planning of new products and adjust the number of products produced.

Now, the description of each DB will be made.

FIG. 8 shows an example of data included in the product information DB 100. In the product information DB 100, product information provided by participating companies is recorded. Depending on the product information,
When the user acquires the product information, a virtual product is issued to the user. The product information DB 100 includes, for example, product information identification information (product I
Along with D), the name of the participating company that provided the product information, the content of the product information, whether or not a virtual product has been issued, and the like are stored.

FIGS. 9 to 11 show examples of data contained in the user DB 102. FIG.

FIG. 9 is an example of a table in which user attribute information included in the user DB 102 is described. Each user:
A user ID for specifying a user is assigned.
According to the user ID, the user's birthday, gender, hobby,
Attribute information such as favorite food is described. This table shows the background of the user.

FIG. 10 is an example of a table in which the operation history of the virtual product of the user included in the user DB 102 is described. This table records, for a specific user, the date on which an action was taken on a virtual product and the content of the action. Further, a list of virtual goods owned by the user at that time is described. This is the virtual product possession information of the user.

FIG. 11 is an example of a table in which user preference information for each product included in the user DB 102 is described.
In this table, preference characteristic information on various products for each user is quantified and described. Preference characteristic information is, for example, products are classified by type such as car, coffee,
Preference characteristic information of each user is calculated for each specific actual product.

The digitization of the preference characteristic information is performed, for example, by replacing “like” to “dislike” of the product with a numerical value from 0 to 100. The replacement with a numerical value is based on how the user handled the virtual product. For example, when the following operation is performed on a virtual product, it is determined that the user does not like the corresponding real product much, and a predetermined value is subtracted from the numerical value of the preference characteristic information.・ Discard the issued virtual goods ・ Discard the virtual goods in the belongings box ・ Replace the virtual goods in the belongings box with other virtual goods ・ Deliver the virtual goods to the other party according to the exchange of the virtual goods from the other party On the other hand, when the following operations are performed on the virtual product, the user determines that he / she likes the corresponding real product, and adds a predetermined value to the numerical value of the preference characteristic information.・ Put the issued virtual goods in the belongings box ・ Acquire real goods using virtual goods ・ Get desired virtual goods by exchanging virtual goods

FIG. 12 shows an example of a table in the virtual merchandise DB 104 that describes the history of user operations for each virtual merchandise. In this example, for a specific virtual product V1, a date on which an operation has occurred, a user who has performed the operation, and a history of the contents of the operation are described. As a result, all operations performed by the user on a certain virtual product can be grasped.

FIG. 13 is a table describing market reaction information for virtual products included in virtual product DB 104. FIG.
Table A describes what reaction the user has made to the virtual product V1 as market reaction information. The market reaction information is calculated by the market reaction information acquisition unit 136. For example, for the user who issued the virtual product,
The percentage of the people who have received the issued virtual goods and put them in the “storage box” is calculated and described. Table B in FIG. 13 is a table in which, based on the results obtained in the above table, favorable sensitivities to actual products when classified into each age group are calculated as market reaction information. The favorable sensitivity is obtained, for example, by adding the values obtained by multiplying each numerical value in Table A of FIG. 13 by a predetermined coefficient. The favorable comparison can be obtained for each item indicated in the attribute information, in addition to the age group. As a result, it is possible to obtain not only individual user preferences for actual products but also more macroscopic information.

FIG. 14 is an example of a table in which the virtual product DB 104 describes the exchange value ratio of virtual products. This table shows the average value of the exchange value ratio calculated from the exchange of the virtual product V1 with another virtual product between various users. Thereby, the value of the virtual product V1 can be easily compared with the values of other virtual products.

FIG. 15 shows the configuration of the user terminal 30.
The user terminal 30 includes an attribute information input unit 200, a product information acquisition unit 210, and a virtual product operation unit 220. Note that the user terminal 30 has an input device such as a mouse or a keyboard for receiving a user operation.

The attribute information input unit 200 acquires personal information (including name, gender, birthday, address, hobby, favorite food, etc.) from the user and transmits the acquired information to the virtual merchandise management apparatus 20.

The product information acquisition section 210 acquires product information from the product information list presented from the virtual product management device 20. For example, when a desired product name is clicked from a list of product names presented on the Web, product information such as an advertisement related to the product is displayed on the user terminal 30.

The virtual merchandise operating section 220 issues a virtual merchandise issued to a user or presents a virtual merchandise owned by the user, receives an operation on the virtual merchandise from the user, and transmits the virtual merchandise to the virtual merchandise management apparatus 20. The operations for virtual goods include the operations listed below. When the virtual product management device 20 issues a virtual product to the user, the issued virtual product is displayed on a monitor of the user terminal 30. When the user who has viewed the virtual product displayed on the monitor does not need the virtual product, the user accepts discarding the virtual product and transmits an instruction from the user to the virtual product management device 20 to indicate that the user wants to buy the virtual product. When the user who sees the virtual product displayed on the monitor wants the virtual product, he / she accepts the possession, and transmits a virtual product ownership instruction from the user to the virtual product management device 20. When the user desires to exchange virtual goods, the user instructs the user terminal 30 on the virtual goods to be exchanged and the virtual goods desired to be acquired. A virtual product exchange instruction is transmitted from the user terminal 30 to the virtual product management device 20. When the user wants to respond to another user's virtual commodity exchange request, the user terminal 30 indicates that fact to the virtual commodity management apparatus 2
Transmit to 0. If the user owns a predetermined virtual product and wants to acquire a real product, the user terminal 30 is instructed to perform a real product acquisition process. An instruction for a real product acquisition process is transmitted from the user terminal 30 to the virtual product management device 20.

An exchange procedure for exchanging virtual goods owned by a user is as follows.

The user selects a virtual product (to be referred to as a virtual product A) to be exchanged from the virtual products on hand. Here, the virtual product for exchange is considered to have a low value for the user among the virtual products owned by the user. On the other hand, a virtual product (virtual product B) desired in exchange for virtual product A is designated.

In exchange for virtual commodity A, another user is notified that there is a user who wants virtual commodity B.
If any of the users who saw it accept the offered exchange terms, the user offers to accept the exchange. By performing the virtual product exchange process,
The virtual commodity B is passed to the user who has offered the exchange, and the virtual commodity A is passed to the user who has responded to the exchange. In the exchange of virtual products, the user ID of the user involved in the exchange of virtual products and the virtual product ID owned by the user are stored in the user DB.
This is done by rewriting

The operation of the user and the like will be described below by exemplifying a screen displayed on the monitor of the user terminal 30.

FIG. 16 shows that the virtual commodity existence notification unit 120
This is an example of notifying the user that the virtual product is ready to be issued. Screen 1 is the screen that the user is looking at first. When a link X in the screen 1 is clicked, a screen 2 is displayed. Clicking the link D on the screen 2 displays the screen 3. When the user clicks the link H on the screen 3 to display the linked product information, a virtual product is issued to the user. That is, clicking the link H on the screen 3 is a virtual product issuing condition.

The proximity measuring unit 119 measures, as the proximity information, the user's proximity to a link that can issue a virtual product. When the proximity information reaches a predetermined value, the virtual product presence notification unit 120 notifies the user that the link that can issue the virtual product is near. For example, the degree-of-approach information indicates at least how many remaining clicks the virtual product is issued. When the proximity information indicates the number of remaining two clicks, the user is notified. In the case of FIG. 16, when the screen 1 is displayed, a total of three clicks of the link X, the link D, and the link H are required until the link H is clicked. In this case, the proximity information is measured as “three remaining clicks”.

Next, when the link 2 is clicked and the screen 2 is displayed, the link H can be reached by two clicks of the link D and the link H until the link H is clicked.
The proximity information is measured as “two remaining clicks”. Here, the virtual product presence notification unit 120 notifies the user that the link at which the virtual product can be issued is close. For example, a “virtual product presence notification screen 250” that notifies that a link that can issue a virtual product is near may be displayed in a pop-up. Thus, the user is alerted that the link for issuing the virtual product is close. Note that the alert may be performed by voice such as a warning sound.
As described above, by alerting the user before clicking the link H for issuing the virtual product, the possibility that the user misses the link H is reduced. Also, from the information provider side, it is expected that the alerted user will examine the links displayed on the screen in order until the link H is found. Information can be provided to potential users.

FIG. 17 shows an example of a screen for displaying virtual merchandise owned by the user. The virtual product issued to the user is first displayed as "new virtual product area 260".

When the user does not like the issued virtual product or does not need it, the user can "discard" the virtual product. When the issued virtual product is required, the user can “get” the virtual product.
By “receiving”, the virtual product becomes a property of the user and is displayed in the “storage box area 270”. It is also possible to “throw away” the virtual goods once placed in the “storage box area 270”.

FIG. 18 is an example of a virtual commodity exchange offer list screen. The virtual commodity exchange offer list screen shows exchange conditions received from a user who wants to exchange virtual goods. For example, a virtual product to be exchanged by the user and a virtual product to be obtained in exchange for the virtual product are shown. The user looks at the virtual commodity exchange offer list screen and responds to the exchange as necessary.

FIG. 19 is a sequence chart of the virtual commodity providing system of the present invention. First, the virtual product management device 20 receives provision of product information from participating companies (S1).
0). The provided product information is described on a Web page (S20). When the user who has viewed the Web page acquires predetermined product information (S30), the virtual product management device 2
0, a virtual product is issued to the user terminal 30 (S4).
0). The user sends a virtual merchandise exchange request in order to obtain a virtual merchandise necessary for real merchandise acquisition (S50). The virtual product management device 20 presents a virtual product exchange to another user,
When another user has responded to the request, virtual goods exchange processing is performed (S60). Thereby, the desired virtual product is sent to the user (S70). The user satisfying the conditions for acquiring the actual product requests acquisition of the actual product (S80). The virtual product management device 20 performs a real product acquisition process according to an instruction from the user (S90), and the user obtains a real product (S100). The virtual merchandise management apparatus 20 records a series of user operations in a DB, and based on the recorded operations, preference characteristic information indicating user preferences and information on how the virtual merchandise is handled by a plurality of users. Based on this, more average or macro information for the actual product is calculated as market reaction information (S110). The calculated preference characteristic information and market reaction information are notified to the participating companies that have provided the product information, and are fed back to product development and the like (S120).

The notification of the preference characteristic information and the market reaction information to the participating companies is not limited to after the user has obtained the actual product. Even before the user exchanges the actual product,
Participating companies can acquire preference characteristic information and market reaction information as needed.

(Second Embodiment) FIG. 20 shows a second embodiment of the virtual commodity providing system 10 of the present invention. The configuration of the present embodiment is the same as that of the first embodiment except that a product information providing device 22 is newly added. The product information providing device 22 provides product information from participating companies in the form of a Web page. The user terminal 30 can refer to the product information provided by the product information providing device 22 together with the product information provided by the virtual product management device 20. When the product information is referred to from the user terminal 30, the product information providing device 22 transmits the product information referred to by the user together with the user identification information (user ID) to the virtual product management device 20.
Notify.

FIG. 21 shows the configuration of the virtual merchandise management device 20 used in the second embodiment. The virtual merchandise management device 20 of the present embodiment is the same as the first embodiment except that the virtual merchandise management device 20 includes a merchandise information reference management unit 111. The merchandise information reference management unit 111 acquires, from the merchandise information providing device 22, the merchandise information referred to by the user together with the user identification information. The product information reference management unit 111 uses the product information DB 100 to check whether the product information referenced by the user satisfies the conditions for issuing a virtual product. If the virtual product issuance condition is satisfied, the virtual product issuance unit 122 is made to issue virtual product.

According to the present embodiment, the user acquires a virtual product not only when referring to the product information provided by the virtual product management device 20 but also when referring to the product information provided by the product information providing device 22. be able to.

As described above, the present invention has been described using the embodiments. However, the technical scope of the present invention is not limited to the scope described in the above embodiments. Various changes or improvements can be added to the above embodiment. It should be noted that such modified or improved embodiments may be included in the technical scope of the present invention.
It is clear from the description of the claims.

As a modification of the present invention, for example, the product information providing device 22 in the second embodiment may issue a virtual product to a user who satisfies a predetermined virtual product issuing condition.

With the virtual merchandise providing system described above, a virtual merchandise corresponding to a real merchandise, which has not existed in the past, is provided to a user who has acquired predetermined merchandise information, and a place for trading virtual merchandise is provided. Can be further,
It is possible to estimate the popularity of the corresponding real product from the transaction of the virtual product and how it is handled.

[0085]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, marketing research can be performed efficiently.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a first embodiment of a virtual commodity providing system 10 of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a real product corresponding to a virtual product.

FIG. 3 is a diagram schematically showing a virtual product management device 20.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a configuration of a product information management unit 106.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a configuration of a user request management unit 108.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a flowchart until the virtual product issuing unit 122 issues a virtual product.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a configuration of a user trend management unit 110.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of data included in the product information DB 100.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an example of a table describing user attribute information included in a user DB;

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a table in which a history of operations on a virtual product of a user included in a user DB 102 is described.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of a table in which user-specific preference characteristic information included in a user DB 102 is described.

FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating an example of a table in which a history of user operations for each virtual product included in the virtual product DB 104 is described.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a table describing market reaction information for virtual products included in the virtual product DB 104;

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing a table describing virtual product exchange value ratios included in the virtual product DB 104;

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing a configuration of a user terminal 30.

FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating an example of a case where the virtual product presence notification unit 120 notifies the user that the virtual product is ready to be issued;

FIG. 17 is a diagram showing an example of a screen for displaying virtual merchandise owned by a user.

FIG. 18 is a diagram showing an example of a virtual commodity exchange offer list screen.

FIG. 19 is a diagram showing a sequence chart of the virtual product providing system of the present invention.

FIG. 20 shows a second example of the virtual commodity providing system 10 of the present invention.
It is a figure showing an embodiment.

FIG. 21 is a diagram showing a configuration of a virtual product management device 20 used in the second embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Virtual goods provision system 20 Virtual goods management apparatus 30 User terminal 40 Internet 106 Merchandise information management part 108 User request management part 110 User trend management part

Claims (14)

[Claims] 1. A system for providing information on a product to a plurality of users via the Internet, wherein the system has a value that can be exchanged for a real product, and a virtual product that includes product-related information on the real product. A virtual product issuing unit for issuing to the user who satisfies the virtual product issuance condition, the user identification information for specifying the user, and virtual product identification information for specifying a virtual product owned by the user. A virtual product possession information holding unit that records as virtual product ownership information; a real product acquisition processing unit that manages whether to allow the user to exchange a virtual product owned by the user with a corresponding real product; Preference characteristic management for acquiring preference characteristic information of the user by monitoring handling of the virtual product by the user based on information When, virtual product providing system characterized in that it comprises a virtual commodity management apparatus having a. 2. The virtual commodity management device, comprising: a market response information acquisition unit that acquires market response information for each real product based on the preference characteristic information of the user acquired by the preference characteristic management unit; And a preference characteristic notifying unit that notifies a real product provider that provides the real product with which at least one of the preference characteristic information and the market reaction information can be exchanged for the virtual product. Item 7. The virtual goods providing system according to Item 1. 3. The preference characteristic management unit according to claim 1, wherein the selection information indicating the selection of the virtual product of the user, obtained from the virtual product ownership information, and the user permitted to exchange the virtual product with the real product, The virtual apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the preference characteristic information of the user is obtained based on at least one of real product acquisition information indicating that a real product has been obtained and attribute information of the user. Product supply system. 4. The virtual commodity issued by the virtual commodity issuing unit is exchangeable between the users, and the virtual commodity management device is a user who offers to exchange the virtual commodity and another user who responds to the exchange. 2. The virtual product according to claim 1, further comprising: a virtual product exchange processing unit that exchanges the virtual product by rewriting the virtual product possession information held by the virtual product possession information holding unit. 3. Product supply system. 5. The preference characteristic management unit according to claim 4, wherein the preference characteristic management unit calculates the preference characteristic information of each user for an actual product based on the virtual commodity exchange process between the users. Virtual goods providing system. 6. The virtual product presented by one user and the virtual product presented by the other user when the virtual product is exchanged between the users, wherein the market response information acquiring unit compares the virtual product presented by the other user. The virtual commodity providing system according to claim 1, wherein the exchange value ratio between the two is calculated, and the market reaction information for each actual commodity is further obtained. 7. The virtual merchandise issuing unit according to claim 1, wherein the virtual merchandise issuing unit includes a unit that determines the virtual merchandise to be issued based on at least one of the preference characteristic information and the market reaction information. The virtual goods providing system described. 8. The real product acquisition processing unit includes a real product acquisition condition holding unit that holds real product acquisition conditions that define conditions necessary for obtaining the real product by exchanging with the virtual product. The virtual product issuing unit, based on the real product acquisition condition and the virtual product ownership information, the number of virtual products to be issued,
The virtual goods providing system according to claim 1, further comprising: means for determining a type and a type. 9. The real product acquisition condition held by the real product acquisition condition holding unit is a condition necessary for obtaining the real product, that is, when a plurality of types of virtual products are owned in a predetermined combination. The virtual goods providing system according to claim 8, wherein the system is set. 10. The virtual merchandise issuing unit sets a virtual merchandise ownership restriction condition regarding at least one of the number and type of virtual commodities that can be owned by the user; and The virtual goods providing system according to claim 1, further comprising means for issuing the virtual goods. 11. The virtual merchandise issuing section issues a virtual merchandise together with introduction information for introducing information on the real merchandise corresponding to the virtual merchandise.
The virtual goods providing system according to 1. 12. The virtual merchandise management device, the proximity measuring unit that measures proximity information indicating the proximity of the user to a state that satisfies a condition under which the virtual merchandise can be issued to the user; 2. The virtual product presence notification unit that notifies the user that the virtual product is ready to be issued when the proximity information reaches a predetermined value. The virtual goods providing system according to 1. 13. A method of providing information on a product to a plurality of users via the Internet, wherein the virtual product having a value that can be exchanged for a real product and including the product-related information on the real product is provided in a predetermined manner. Issuing the virtual commodity issuing condition to the user who has satisfied the virtual commodity issuing condition by the exchange, exchanging the issued virtual commodity user among the issued virtual commodity users, and providing the real commodity acquiring condition for acquiring the real commodity Performing a real product acquisition process. 14. A recording medium storing a program for causing a computer to execute a procedure for providing information on a product to a plurality of users via the Internet, wherein the program has a value that can be exchanged for a real product, Issuing a virtual product including product-related information relating to the real product to the user who satisfies predetermined virtual product issuing conditions; the user identification information for identifying the user; and a virtual device owned by the user. Recording virtual product identification information in association with virtual product identification information specifying the product; managing the virtual product owned by the user as to whether or not to allow exchange for the corresponding real product; and By monitoring the handling of the virtual product by the user based on the virtual product ownership information, Computer readable recording medium characterized by comprising a step of acquiring the preference characteristic information over THE, the.