JP2002157526A - Settlement system of pay information providing service - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a settlement system having versatility and convenience in a pay information providing service on the Internet. SOLUTION: This settlement system has an accounting acting means capable of claiming the information charge of a user who receives pay information (contents) providing on the Internet while including the information charge in the subscriber charge of a portable telephone by using a user terminal such as a personal computer. Also, the charging acting means is provided with a point issuing means in convenience.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a pay information providing system on the Internet (wide area computer network), and more particularly to an information charge processing method and a payment when providing pay information from an information (content) server to a user terminal. About the system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In the field of paid information providing services on the Internet, a credit card has been generally used as a settlement means. In addition, settlement by a prepaid card system and settlement by mail such as bank transfer or registered mail are used. On the other hand, an Internet connection service provided by a mobile communication carrier in recent years provides a highly convenient payment method in which a usage fee of paid content is included in a communication fee of a subscriber and collective charging is collected.

[0003]

However, since only contents specially prepared for a mobile terminal can be used on a mobile phone, a uniform and convenient payment method is used when using a general terminal such as a personal computer. Was required.

[0004]

According to the present invention, there is provided a settlement system for providing pay information from an information (content) server using a user terminal connected to the Internet via a fixed network. There is provided a charging agent processing means for billing a user's content fee to be included in a subscriber communication fee of a portable terminal capable of using the Internet connection service through a mobile communication network.

In order to provide a versatile and convenient settlement system, the invention according to claim 2 adds a point issuing processing means to the billing processing means. The invention according to claim 3 is characterized in that a point issue processing means is added to a subscriber billing processing means of a portable terminal which can use an Internet connection service via a mobile communication network.

[0006]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. <Network Configuration> FIG. 1 shows a configuration diagram of the settlement system of the present invention. This system includes an information server (3) that provides pay information via the Internet, a user terminal (1) that receives provision of pay information, a mobile terminal (2) that can use an Internet connection service provided by a mobile communication carrier, and A proxy server (4) that performs a charging proxy process and a settlement process via these components.

First, well-known techniques and general items applied to the present invention will be described. The user terminal (1) is equipped with general-purpose browsing software (WWW browser) and is equipped with an information server (WWW).
The exchange with the WW server is based on a standard protocol such as TCP / IP, general-purpose language HTML, and HTTP. Next, an Internet connection service provided by a mobile communication carrier (carrier) will be described. The mobile terminal (2) is connected to a carrier center (5) via a base station and a mobile communication network. The center (5) has a subscriber charging processing system for calculating a packet communication fee for each subscriber number of each mobile terminal. Mobile terminal (2) on the Internet
Is assigned an IP address and connected via a gateway. It also has a special mode for accessing paid content, and the access authentication is performed based on the subscriber number detected and transmitted at the time of calling and a specially allocated authentication number. The billing system bills the content fee as well.

<First Embodiment> = <Payment System for Paying a Flat Rate for Membership Paid Information (Content) Using a Mobile Phone> The first embodiment is easily interfaced with a subscriber billing processing system of the center (5). It is a simple settlement system that can do it. The operation procedure and operation will be described based on the processing flow shown in FIG. Accessing a site providing desired content from a user terminal (1) such as a personal computer, and inputting a user ID, a password, and a mobile mail address in a new member registration shown in FIG. When the registration button is pressed after the input is completed, the input registration information is stored in the member information database (DB). An e-mail (27) describing the user ID, password and fee payment method registered in the previous term is automatically transmitted to the registered e-mail address. This e-mail contains the page address (URL) of the payment execution pass. This URL is a charged information charge target for the mobile phone (2). That is, this UR
At the same time L is accessed, a monthly information fee is charged by the subscriber charging processing system.

[0009] The user uses the mobile phone to send the mail (27)
And clicks on the URL described in the email to access the payment execution path. At this time, the user ID is posted in the request header. The valid access determination (23) of the payment execution path is for preventing unauthorized use, and obtains and determines the IP address and the user ID from the request header of the request terminal (27). If the access is from the charging target, it is determined that the access is valid, and the content payment operation screen (24) (display example 2) is displayed. When the OK button is pressed on this operation screen, the expiration date of the member information DB corresponding to the requested user ID is updated (+30 days), and the payment processing is completed. on the other hand,
In the authentication (login) at the time of using the content by the normal user terminal (1), the user can use the content until the expiration date to determine the user ID, the password, and the expiration date. When the expiration date has passed, the mobile terminal is notified by e-mail. The user can receive the e-mail and renew the expiration date by repeating the operation procedure described above.

The processing of the first embodiment described above is based on the premise that the proxy server (4) shown in FIG. 1 is not used and the information server (3) is incorporated into the information server (3). In the case where the present invention is applied to payment of the content, the proxy server (4) may be incorporated independently.

<Second Embodiment> = <Electronic Settlement System Integrating Point Issuing Means and Mobile Phone Billing Means> In this embodiment, an electronic payment system having the versatility of the payment system of the first embodiment to function as electronic money is provided. The purpose is to provide a payment system. That is, the concept of a well-known point corresponding to a monetary value is introduced. These points can be purchased (supplemented) as needed by the charging processing means of the mobile phone, and can be obtained (issue points) as needed as cooperation rewards for advertisements and questionnaires, and can be used to pay paid content information fees.

This electronic payment system is executed by the program processing of the proxy server (4) in the network configuration of FIG. Hereinafter, the operation will be described with reference to FIG. Customer information database (34)
Is a table in which information necessary for the processing is stored for each customer. (See FIG. 4 for specific examples of information items.) The main menu (31) provides a man-machine interface function as a portal (entrance) of the present system. (See Figure 4 for page layout example)

[0013] A new user of the electronic payment system first registers as a member. In this registration, the member registration processing section (31) inputs necessary customer information (user ID, password, mobile phone identification number, etc.) and stores it in the customer information DB (34). Next, the purchase (use) and payment (payment) of paid content will be described. When the desired content on the information server (3) is purchased (member content is registered as a member), the information server (3) issues a settlement request to the settlement request processing unit (35) of the proxy server (4). Upon receiving the request, the settlement request processing unit (35) acquires the user ID and password of the request information item and performs user authentication.
If the authentication is successful, the payment amount of the request information item is obtained and subtracted from the current point value. If the subtraction result is positive, the value is set as a new point value in the customer information DB (3
After updating 5), the information server (3) is notified that the settlement has been normally completed. On the other hand, if the subtraction result is negative or the authentication fails, the result is stored in the information server (35).
And the settlement process is not performed. These settlement histories are stored in the customer information DB (35). The information server (3) performs content providing processing corresponding to each content to the requesting user based on the notified settlement result.

Next, a function of purchasing points using a portable terminal (2) such as a portable telephone will be described. The point purchase request processing unit (36) that has been accessed from the mobile terminal (2) determines whether the access is valid as described in the first embodiment. If the access is valid, the customer is identified by the mobile identification number acquired from the request information, and the corresponding customer information (user ID, current point value) is displayed on the point purchase screen. Next, when the number of points to be purchased is input and the OK button is pressed, the number of purchased points is added to the current point value. At this time, a fee corresponding to the number of purchased points is transmitted to the subscriber billing processing system of the center (5) as billing data of pay information. In the center (5), this charging data is included in the subscriber communication fee and charged to the user. It should be noted that the above-described billing processing method is an example, and the interface specification may be adapted to the billing processing specification of the center (5).

Next, the point issuing function (38) will be described. As is well known, a point program that issues points as a reward for cooperation such as payback for shopping, browsing advertisements, and questionnaires is known. The second embodiment of the present invention is one in which this point program is added to the above-mentioned settlement means. That is, the point issuance processing unit (3
8) provides a program such as a questionnaire and executes a function of issuing specified points (adding to the current point value) to the responding user.

In particular, with regard to advertisements, incentives can be given to clicks on banner advertisements which are well known as homepage advertisement methods. That is, a program for issuing points to the user who clicks the banner advertisement is added to the point issuing function (38). This is disclosed in JP-A-2000-194636.
This is an application of the information provision method on the Internet. In addition, the above-mentioned banner advertisement is sent to an external advertisement distribution server (3
You may receive dynamic distribution from 9).

The configuration of the embodiment of the present invention is based on the Internet connection service (carrier / carrier) of a specific mobile communication carrier.
Provider), but multiple carriers
Providers may be supported simultaneously. In other words, if the point purchase request processing unit (1) in the proxy server processing flow chart of FIG. 3 is prepared for each carrier provider, it can be used with all mobile phones and a versatile electronic payment system can be constructed.

A mobile phone has a problem as an advertisement medium as compared with a personal computer, for example, in that a charge is applied to the communication amount (packet) and a display amount is limited by a screen size.
In the electronic payment system according to the second embodiment of the present invention, the terminal for purchasing (using) the content is a device connected to a fixed network such as a personal computer, but may be the mobile terminal itself. According to this configuration, the value of the advertising medium of the mobile phone can be increased by the advantage of the point issuing function (incentive for the advertisement browsing).

[0019]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a versatile and convenient payment system in a pay information providing service on the Internet.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a network configuration diagram of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a processing flowchart of the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of a proxy server process according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 shows items of a database according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a screen display example according to the embodiment of the present invention.

Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat II (Reference) H04B 7/26 109M

Claims (3)

[Claims] Claims: 1. A payment system for a pay information providing service on the Internet, wherein a user who is provided with pay information from an information server using a user terminal connected to the Internet via a fixed network is charged. And a billing agent processing means for billing a subscriber's communication fee of a portable terminal that can use an Internet connection service through a mobile communication network. 2. The settlement system according to claim 1, wherein a point issue processing means is added to said billing processing means. 3. A subscriber charging processing means of a portable terminal which can use an Internet connection service via a mobile communication network,
A settlement system characterized by adding point issuing processing means.