JP2003016369A - Method and system for selling and charging for contents, article and service by point - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a value transfer means which can adapt to the charging and time charging of contents, articles, and services even to small-amount of charging on a network flexibly at low cost and which can secure anonymity by buying points according to a method for contents charging on the Internet and using them as a paying means. SOLUTION: The category of a person 12 which carries out sales business on the network includes a service seller of contents sales, article sales, service sales, and time charging who are authorized by public ethical examination. The price for the sales is paid by using points prepaid by contents charging, and a point management system 16 records the points to manage purchase and payment. In the point management system 16, the value is transferred according to an ID at low cost without any expensive commission like that of a bank account and a credit card, and then even small-amount charging is dealt with and the anonymity is guaranteed. The points are bought by a contents charging system 14 that a charging agent operates from a user terminal 15 through the Internet.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method and system for selling and charging content products and services by points. More specifically, a method and system for selling and charging content products and services by points suitable for e-commerce business constructed using the Internet, and products for which points are priced as purchases of content or points. The present invention relates to a method and system for selling and charging services.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a "time-limited use charging system on the Internet" is known as a charging system on the Internet (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-27936 and Japanese Patent No. 2939723). With this time-use billing system,
When a user (client) receives a paid service from a certain site (service provider) using the Internet, a predetermined connection frequency is given to each user in advance, and the connection frequency is less than 0. The system is configured to be able to receive a connection service until a certain point, and the connection fee is charged according to the connection use time.

Further, as a "content usage fee charging method", there is a charging method disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-13371. In this billing method, when a client connects to the Internet via a provider and obtains content data, the content providing server monitors and acquires the time for downloading the content data, and based on the time, a predetermined method is used. It is a method configured to calculate a charge and notify the client side.

As a technique that seems to be further related, there is "Unauthorized Duplication Use Prevention System and Unauthorized Duplication Use Prevention Processing Method of Software / Copyright" disclosed in JP-A-8-6784. The subject matter (technical idea) of the present invention is to lock a software / work and to send a key for unlocking the software / work, when selling the software / work etc. exclusively via the network. However, it is put in place to prevent duplication without permission. However, even in this system, software / copyrights, etc. are sold via the network, so that there is a problem of what kind of mechanism the charging system should be originally provided.

[0005]

The technical contents of the above-mentioned "time-limited billing system on the Internet" is a technique for billing by managing connection time, not a billing for contents. Further, the above-mentioned “content usage fee billing method” is a method of billing content, but is a method of performing billing control by utilizing the characteristic of downloading of content data. Although it is effective as one of the charging methods for the content, the content is replaced with the download time for charging, and there is a problem that the content may not be sufficiently reflected in the charging amount. Furthermore, in the above-mentioned “Unauthorized copy use prevention system and unauthorized copy use prevention processing method of software / copyright”, when sending the key for unlocking to the user, the charging method is also an important issue. Nevertheless, there is no specific mention of the billing method.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present applicant has previously filed Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-081007 (March 22, 2000).
"Application for Information Billing Platform and Information Providing Platform". According to the present invention, it is possible to charge information according to content when a user places an order to an information provider via an internet network or the like using a user terminal and receives provision of goods or services, By allowing multiple information providers to jointly use the information billing system provided by the information billing company, the information users and the information providers can use the information billing at low cost, and the information users can The information billing system can be used without disclosing personal information.

Furthermore, the applicant of the present invention relates to a system method that is socially highly practical from a new viewpoint, on the basis of the basic configuration of the above-mentioned “information charging method and information providing platform” and further applying and modifying it. It is a proposal. The important point is that when providing paid content to users via the Internet, the content provider is devoted to creating good and legal content, and on the other hand, sales promotion of content is done specially. This is something that should be done by others. Furthermore, in sales promotion of pay contents, it is necessary to build a charge and billing system that users can use appropriately.

An object of the present invention is to charge points for goods and services by purchasing points by a content charging method,
Further, it is to provide a method and system for selling and charging content products / services by points, which is intended to extend the application to time charging of services.
Still another object of the present invention is to improve the content creation ability, promote the sale of the content, and at the same time, provide the content product / service by the point that the user can obtain the paid content at a reasonable price. It is to provide a selling and charging method and system.

[0009]

[MEANS FOR SOLVING THE PROBLEMS] In order to achieve the above object, a method and system for selling and charging content products / services by points according to the present invention are configured as follows.

A method of selling and charging according to the present invention (claim 1
The content provider is composed of a content seller and a sales agent, the content seller is devoted to content creation, and the sales agent promotes content sales. Also, the sales agent installs a sales site that is accessible via the Internet and has an information database that stores content menus and pay content.
On the other hand, the user purchases points with the billing system operated by the billing agent, and further, the user accesses the sales site via the Internet using the user terminal,
Download the above content menu to the user terminal via the Internet, and if there is something that the user wants to purchase based on the content menu, download the content from the information database via the point management system operated by the point management company. . When this download is performed, the point management system uses points to charge. The "Internet" includes an electric communication line for connecting a normal PC (personal computer) or the like as a terminal device, and an electric communication line for mobile connection such as a web phone of a mobile phone such as i-mode as a terminal device. It is a concept.

[0011] In the above method, preferably, the user purchases points that can be a payment price in advance and uses the remaining number of points to purchase the content, and the point management system records the number of points of the user. The balance is managed (corresponding to claim 2). In the above method, more preferably, the user considers points that can be paid for by the point management company as content, purchases points by using the content charging method, and pays for sales of goods and services at the points. By doing so, it becomes possible to purchase goods or services by the content charging method (corresponding to claim 3). In the above cases, based on the standards of public order and morals of society, contents subject to price movement due to value transfer at points, product sales,
It is premised that the contents of the service have been examined in advance by a public institution. In the above method, more preferably, when the user purchases a service that is charged by the point purchased from the point management company, the point is subtracted according to the usage time of the service to charge the hour (charge. (Corresponding to item 4).

The sales and billing system according to the present invention (corresponding to claim 5) is a content seller who is devoted to the creation of content, and the content seller is entrusted with the sales, and is accessible via the Internet. It has a sales site with an information database that stores menus and paid contents, and sales agents that promote the sales of contents via this sales site, and points are awarded with a prepaid point system when selling and purchasing contents. It consists of a billing agent that charges and pays for the fee, and a point management company that manages the number of points for each user. The user accesses the sales site via the Internet using the user terminal, downloads the content menu to the user terminal via the Internet, selects the content based on the content menu, and operates the point management company. Download the content from the information database via the point management system. Along with this download, the points in the point management system are charged and paid.

[0013] In the above system, preferably, the user purchases points that can be a payment price in advance from a billing agent, and purchases the contents by using the remaining points, and the point management company sets the user. Is managed (corresponding to claim 6). In the above system, more preferably, the user considers points that can be paid by a billing agent as content, purchases points by using the content billing method, and pays for sales of goods and services at the points. By doing so, it becomes possible to purchase goods or services by the content charging method (corresponding to claim 7). In the above system, preferably, when a user purchases a service that is time-charged with points purchased from a billing agent, points are deducted according to the usage time of the service, and time-charging is performed, and point management is performed. Managed by the company (corresponding to claim 8). Furthermore, a point sales and billing system according to the present invention (corresponding to claim 9)
The user considers the points that can be paid by the billing agent as contents and purchases the points by using the content billing method, and sells the product at the points.
It is characterized in that the user can purchase a product or service by a content charging method by paying for the service. Further, another point sales and billing system according to the present invention (corresponding to claim 10) is such that when a user purchases a service that is hourly billed at points purchased from a billing agent, the usage time of the service is It is characterized in that the point is subtracted according to the above, and the time is charged. Another point sales and billing system according to the present invention (corresponding to claim 11) uses the value of money as a point and identifies an individual as an ID as a means of paying some consideration (value) on the Internet. It is possible to transfer value by increasing or decreasing the value of, thereby enabling a small amount of settlement, anonymity and a low fee.

[0014]

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

With reference to FIG. 1, an overall configuration and process for a method and system for selling and charging content products / services according to the present invention will be conceptually described.

According to the system of the present invention, the user can purchase and acquire paid contents via the Internet network. Examples of such paid contents are still images, moving images, music, various programs such as game software, passwords, points, and the like.
The password is, for example, sold by a content seller (sales company, etc.) to a user by inserting a recording medium (CD, MD, memory card, etc.) containing an encrypted moving image file into a publication, and selling the user. Is used to make the above video visible by obtaining the password via the Internet and entering it. In the above-mentioned paid contents, points themselves used for payment are also included as paid contents. The point is positioned as the basic one. FIG. 1 illustrates the concept of the point as an image. A point 101 is provided as the base part of the system. This point 101 itself is a target for sale / purchase. Point 1
01 is expressed as a numerical value or quantity and exerts a function equivalent to money on the Internet, and at the same time, it becomes an object that can be added and subtracted as needed as a service object. The point 101 is connected to the content charging system portion 102. By using the point 101, various contents 103, products 104, services 105, etc. can be formed on the point 101 as a base.
The entire system can be configured with the object 106 for which hourly billing is placed. In the following description of the embodiments, the process of selling and billing for pay content is mainly described, but the point itself is also included in the pay content. In other words, the process of purchasing goods / services based on points and the service of time-based charging is performed in the same process.

An overview of the overall process shown in FIG. 2 is P1.
It is described according to the procedure of 01 to P111. In this process, according to the steps P101 to P111, the user 10
Content provider 1 using the Internet 11
Purchase paid content from 2. At this time, the content provider 12 is composed of a content seller (12A) and a sales agency (12B), as will be described later in detail. In FIG. 2, the content provider 1 is a combination of the two.
It is shown as 2. As the content provider 12,
It has a sales site 13 that has an information database about pay contents and has a home page (contents top page described later) that presents a menu of the contents. The user 10 accesses the home page of the sales site 13, refers to the content menu, and purchases paid content as necessary. At this time, the charging system 14 is installed in the middle stage to purchase points,
Further, the point management system 16 charges points for content purchase and collects the price.

A more detailed description will be given. User (customer) 1
0 uses the user terminal 15 to log on to the sales site 13 via the Internet network 11 to obtain a content menu (P101). The sales site 13 is usually
It is operated by a sales agency outsourced to a content seller. The content seller is not limited to one company. Content provided by the sales site 13 shows contents provided by a plurality of content sellers. User 10 is user terminal 15
Purchase points in advance using the charging system 14 using
Purchase points are recorded in the point management system 16. When there is a content to be purchased in the obtained content menu, the user 10 uses the user terminal 15 to log on to the point management system 16 with an ID and point password specific to the charging service (P102). ), And further accesses the sales site 13 (P103), and pays the paid content to the user terminal 1
5 or download the product or service (P104). In this way, the pay content is purchased by the user 10 (P105).

In the above process of purchasing paid contents, the price of paid contents is paid via the point management system 16 to the side of the sales site 13 that provides the contents, that is, the contents provider 12 (contents seller, sales agent). (Payment etc.) (P10)
7). The billing system 14 is operated by a billing agent as described later and has a function of billing the user 10 (P106).

The information database for storing the paid contents such as "still images, moving pictures, music, various programs such as game software, passwords, points" provided by the contents provider 12 which provides the paid contents is usually provided in the sales site 13. , Is placed in the information server in the information provision platform.

The user 10 who has obtained the content menu can also select a CD he or she desires to obtain from this menu, for example, a CD in which music content is stored or a DVD in which a moving image is stored. In the case of an item such as a CD, the item is delivered to the user 10 via another item delivery route (P108). Products purchased at points are also delivered to the user 10 by the same procedure. In this case, an item such as a CD may be delivered free of charge as a backup of paid contents downloaded via the Internet.

When the user 10 makes a request for purchasing points from the user terminal 15 via the billing system 14, usually, personal information such as the address, name, and telephone number of the user 10 is also added. Recorded in the information database.

In the above procedure P104, the point management system 16 records the ID of the user 10, the content name, and the amount spent. However, in the present embodiment, the prepaid type point sales format is adopted as will be described later, and thus the amount of money used is reported in the number of points.

The billing agent operating the billing system 14 collects the amount charged to the user 10 in procedure P106. Furthermore, the point management company pays the content provider 12 the amount corresponding to the points minus the fee in procedure P107. As a result, the content provider 12 can use the charging system 14 and the point management system 16 to obtain the price of paid content.

Examples of the above-mentioned "billing agent" include, for example, a telecommunications carrier operating Calre and Levi, an Internet service provider, a credit card payer based on SET, a virtual prepaid card issuer, and an application service. You can name the provider. The following embodiment will be described as an example of content sales based on a typical “curry”.

Further, in the present embodiment, the content provider 12 is composed of a content seller and an agent, ie, a sales agency, which acts as an agent for selling paid content. In order to smoothly use the content providing platform between the content seller and the sales agent, the platform usage fee, communication fee, information fee payment method, fee detail providing method, and writing to the information providing platform are performed in advance. Arrangement of basic usage contract regarding contents, information communication interface, etc.

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. This embodiment shows a typical form for selling contents on the Internet. In FIG. 3 and the like, elements that are substantially the same as the elements described in FIG. 2 are assigned the same reference numerals. The characteristic point of this embodiment is that firstly, there is a sales agent other than the content seller who specializes in sales, and secondly, a prepaid point sales system is adopted as a charging system. It is that you are. The content provider 12 is composed of a content seller 12A and a sales agency 12B. Content seller 12A provides (sells) content
It is a company, which is also referred to as the "operating entity" in the following description and drawings. The sales agent 12B is a content sales agent company.

In this system, the user (customer) 10
Pays the fee by acquiring the paid content through the homepage of the sales agency 12B opened on the Internet and being charged by the prepaid type points.

FIG. 4 is a list showing players and their respective roles related to content sales based on the present system, and FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing a business flow between the players.

As shown in FIG. 4, the players involved in the content sale include the content seller 12A and the sales agency 12B, the billing agent 21, and the point management company 22. The point management company 22 is a point purchase contractor. The content seller 12A entrusts the sales agent 12B to sell the content. By this consignment, the content seller 12A can concentrate on the creation of the content, and also participates in sales promotion activities through the sales agent 12B. Sales promotion of content is directly performed by the sales agency 12B.

Here, the above sales agent 12B is composed of two elements. One is an HP (home page) creation and operation contracting company 12B-1 and the other is a member holding / acquiring company 12B-2.

Next, the role of each player will be described with reference to the list of FIG.

The main role of the content seller 12A is
(1) Creation and pricing of contents and provision of contents to the sales agent 12B, (2) Check of statement about user 10 and amount of money received from point management company 22,
(3) involvement in sales promotion activities, and (4) dealing with complaints from the user 10.

The main role of the HP creation and operation contracting company 12B-1 of the sales agent 12B is (1) creation and operation of the content top page (C1), and (2) creation of the content itself into the HP (C2). And operation, (3) C above
Giving know-how to designing 1 and C2,
(4) Checking the specification based on the usage status and reporting to the content seller 12A and the member holding / acquiring company 12B-2 as necessary regarding the check content.

Membership / acquisition company 1 of sales agent 12B
The main roles of 2B-2 are (1) Dissemination of this service to members and sales activities, (2) Acquisition and check of participation data for this service and members of own member, (3) Details from point management company Check the book and the amount of money received, and (4) create your own HP and create a link to the content seller 12A.

The main role of the billing agent 21 is (1)
It is a charging agency using a calligraphy, and (2) giving and managing calligraphy ID and calli password.

The main role of the point management company 22 is to
(1) Granting point passwords to members, (2) Member management with Calle ID and holding of members at sales agent 12A
Code assignment and management by the acquisition company 12B-2,
(3) Creating a point purchase procedure homepage and providing it, (4) Content seller 12 based on sales data
A, the preparation and delivery of the statement to each of the HP creation and operation contracting company 12B-1 and the member holding / acquiring company 12B-2, and the payment thereof.

The content seller 12A, the HP creation and operation contracting company 12B-1, the member holding / acquiring company 12B-
2, the business flow between the players consisting of the billing agent 21, and the point management company 22 will be described with reference to FIG.
The user (customer) 10 is also shown as an element related to these players.

As a matter of course, the above-mentioned players respectively have a personal computer (user terminal) or a server (23 etc.) as shown in FIG.
1 and are connected to each other so that they can communicate with each other. A required home page (HP) is created and prepared in the server of each player as described later. In order to establish the business flow shown in FIG. 5, a sales agent contract 31 is legally provided between the content seller 12A and the HP creation operation contracting company 12B-1 of the sales agent 12B.
Membership / acquisition company 12 of sales agent 12B
It is premised that a sales agent contract 32 is made with B-2. Also, HP creation and operation contractor 12B-1
It is assumed that a billing agency contract 33 is made between the billing agency 21 and the point management company 22. Furthermore, it is assumed that a service use contract 34 is made between the user (customer) 10 and the billing agent 21 and the point management company 22.

As described above, the content seller 12A creates the content, and the HP creation and operation contracting company 12B-1 of the sales agent 12B creates the content top page (C1).
Is created and the contents are put into the HP (C2). The content seller 12A also creates and has his own home page on his server. The content seller 12A sends the created order form and content to the HP creation and operation contractor 12B-1 (procedure P20).
1). The HP production and operation contracting company 12B-1 receives the contents and the like and sends back a receipt (procedure P202). Then H
The P production operation contracting company 12B-1 inserts the content into the prepared content top page C1 (procedure P2
03).

Membership / acquisition company 1 of sales agent 12B
2B-2 is the homepage of our company (B) (H
P) Create P204 and sell content (A) 1
A link with the home page (HP) created by 2A is created (procedure P205).

The user 10 is provided on the server 24 of the sales agency 12B created by the HP creation and operation contracting company 12B-1 via the Internet network 11 using the user terminal 15 for his or her own Internet. Access the website and purchase the desired content (Procedure P in Figure 3)
103, P104). Regarding the purchase of the content by the user 10, the billing agent 21 (billing system 14) grasps the usage status and prepares a settlement statement (procedure P20).
6) This creation information is provided to the content seller 12A and the sales agent 12B (HP creation operation contracting company 12B-1 and member holding / acquiring company 12B-2) (procedure P).
207). Further, in obtaining the paid content, the user 10 is required to charge the billing agent 21 and the point management company 2
Based on the service usage contract 34 with the customer, payment is made by a purchase method (payment method) using points, which will be described later. Payment from the user 10 is made to the charging agent 21 and the point management company 22 (procedure P208,
(P106 in FIG. 3).

When the user 10 uses the sales agent 12B to purchase paid contents, the user is automatically registered as a member. Information about the user is recorded in the customer database.

The payment of the fee for the purchase of the pay contents by the user 10 is constituted by the prepaid type point sales system. The procedure will be described below from the viewpoint of the prepaid type point sales system based on FIG. Access means for executing the procedure is performed via the Internet 11.

In FIG. 6, the upper row 36 shows the area relating to the procedure for point purchase / payment / management, and the lower row 37 shows the area relating to the procedure for selling contents. In the horizontal direction in FIG. 6, a user 10, a billing agent 21, a point management company 22, and a sales agency 12B are shown.
The sales agency 12B has an HP creation and operation contracting company 12B-1.
And member-owned / acquired companies 12B-2 are included.

The procedure for purchasing, paying and managing points (36) will be described.

The user 10 contacts the billing agent 21 and joins the Calre member (procedure P401). The billing agent 21 is as described above. When the procedure for joining the member of the calli is performed, the billing agent 21 sends the calli ID and the password to the user 10 (procedure P402), and the user 10 acquires the calle ID and the password.

The user 10 who has acquired the calle ID and password accesses each of the sales agent 12B, the point management company 22 and the charging agent 21 in the next stage (P403, P404, P405). Sales agent 12B
With respect to, the content top page C1 for selling the content is accessed, and the point to purchase is determined by referring to the content menu presented on the content top page C1 (procedure P406). As the next step, the user 10 performs the purchase procedure according to the procedure pointed out there on the point purchase page (procedure P4).
07). The procedure for purchasing this point is user 10
Is performed by accessing the point management company 22 (procedure P404). Through this purchase procedure, the point management company 22 gives the user 10 a point password. The point password given to the user 10 is managed by the point management company 22. The point password given to the user 10 is for authenticating the person when the point is consumed.
The user 10 will purchase the paid content based on the amount of money corresponding to the points accepted by the person authenticated by the point password. After that, when the user 10 purchases the paid content to the sales agent 12B and pays the fee required for the paid content, the points are used.

The billing agent 21 is involved in billing. Further, in the relationship between the user 10 and the billing agent 21, the billing agent 21 authenticates the user 10 with the calle ID and the calle password and charges the user 10 who has obtained the paid content ( Procedure P408). Based on this charge, the charging agent 21 charges the user 10 a fee (procedure P409). In this billing, the user 10 uses the Internet network 11 to obtain the paid contents, and therefore the telephone charges for communication are also charged together with the contents charges. When the billing agent 21 charges the fee (procedure P409), the user 10
Pays the usage fee in points (procedure P410). Thereafter, the billing agent 21 takes the amount of the commission paid from the amount paid by the user 10, pays the remaining amount to the sales agent 12B, and reports the payment details to the point management company 22 (procedure P41).
1). The point management company 22 manages the number of points regarding the user 10, that is, the remaining amount of the prepaid amount, based on the report from the billing agent 21.

Next, the procedure for selling the content (37) will be described.

The user 10 accesses the content top page C1 of the sales agency 22 via the Internet 11 (procedure P501), and selects the paid content to be purchased on this page (procedure P502). When the selection is made, the point management company 22 is subjected to a point subtraction procedure (procedure P503). Furthermore, the point management company 22 confirms the approval of the subtraction of points to the user 10 (procedure P504). The user 10 confirms the approval confirmation request (procedure P50).
5). By receiving this confirmation, the point management company 2
2, the user 10 is subtracted from the prepaid amount pooled in points, and a request for content provision is made to the sales agent 12B (procedure P50).
6). In response to the content provision request from the point management company 22, the sales agent 12B provides the user 10 with the paid content selected by the user 10 via the Internet network 11 (procedure P507, FIG. 2). P1
04). In this way, the user 10 becomes the sales agent 12B.
You will get paid content selected from. Finally, the point management company 22 pays the sales agent 12B an amount corresponding to the subtracted points from the amount pooled with the points related to the user 10, and sends the usage status database and the settlement amount. Perform (Procedure P508). This procedure P508 is usually performed on a monthly basis. Usually, the purchase of paid content by the user 10 is conditioned that the points are positive, but when the points become negative, the points are accumulated based on the above-mentioned purchase procedure (procedures of ~ in the figure). It is necessary to do it.

Based on the above procedure configuration, the sales system based on the points purchased in advance, that is, the prepaid type points allows the user to display the contents top page (C1) of the sales agency 12B via the Internet network 11 or the like. You can access and purchase paid content easily and easily.

Next, referring to FIG. 7, the user (customer) 10
Described below is a process in which the information of the user 10 is transferred to the customer database and managed when the user accesses the homepage of the sales agency 12B and purchases the paid content.

The sales agent 12B is the content seller 1
2A, that is, the management entity is entrusted to introduce customers. This customer referral entrustment is included in the above-mentioned sales agent contract.

The user 10 uses his / her own Internet terminal 15 to access the server 23 in which the content top page (C1) 41 of the sales agency 12B is prepared. Looking at the service content shown on the content top page 41, if there is something of interest, click the link button 42 in the home page to move to the home page 43 of the content seller 12A. The URL of the server 44 of the content seller 12A is included in the link button 42.
Is assigned. The home page 43 of the content seller 12A is prepared in the server 44. Moving from the homepage 41 of the sales agency 12B to the homepage 43 of the content seller 12A means that the sales agency 12B introduces the user 10 to the content seller 12A.

The user (customer) 10 is the content seller 1
When the user likes the content provided by 2A and purchases the content to receive the service, he / she clicks the new registration button 45 prepared on the home page 43 of the server 44. At that time, the information of the user 10 is sent to the server 46 of the billing agent 21, and registered in the customer database 47 of the billing agent 21. Customer database 47
Is the code of the sales agent 12B and the content seller 12
This is a database for the URL of A. User 1
The customer database for 0 is composed of the calle ID, the number of remaining points, the point password, the date of use, and the sales agent code. If there is no distributor code, the item is blank.

In the above billing agent 21, the contents of the service provided to the user 10 are stored in the customer database 47 with the sales history of the service provided to the user 10 using the calle ID of the user 10 as a key. In addition, the content seller 12A, which is the operating entity, regularly informs the sales agency 12B that
Pay according to service sales. This payment is
It is performed by the billing agent 21 by calculating the sales amount based on the sales agency code in the face customer database.

As described above, the information of the user 10 who accesses the service provision through the contents top page 41 of the sales agency 12B is passed to the customer database 47 managed by the billing agent 21, and the customer database 47. Is managed as.

Next, with reference to FIGS. 8 and 9, the user (customer) 10 accesses the home page of the sales agency 12B through the Internet network 11 using the points owned by the user (customer) 10 to sell the contents. The process of purchasing paid content created by the person 12A will be specifically described.

In FIG. 8, the user who has accessed the home page 51 of the sales agency 12A enters the content top page 41. On the content top page 41,
A content menu 52 is displayed, in which a plurality of content names are written. The number of points required for the purchase is displayed in each content name, and a click button 53 for indicating the intention when purchasing is displayed. In this case, the user is assumed to have already purchased and owned the points as described above. When the click button 53 is clicked, the page moves to the authentication page 54. When the user purchases the pay content information using the prepaid type points, the authentication page 54 is filled in with the calle ID, the point password, and the number of points purchased this time as already described with reference to FIG. This is a page to do. To cancel the purchase, click the "Return" button 55.
When "Return" is clicked, the content menu 52 is displayed. When purchasing, click the "Purchase" button 56 after making the above entries. When the purchase button 56 is clicked, the system moves to the customer management database 47 and refers to the data contents of the customer management database 47 regarding the user. User authentication page 54
If the content entered in is correct and the number of remaining points is sufficient, authentication is performed properly and the customer database 4
7 is updated (57), and the notification page 58 is entered. On this notification page 58, the number of purchase points and the number of remaining points are shown to the user. When the user confirms the content of the content on the notification page 58, the button 59 is clicked. When the button 59 is clicked, the home page 41 is displayed.

If the content entered by the user on the authentication page 54 is correct and the number of remaining points is insufficient, the process moves to the notification page 61. According to this notification page 61, the current number of points, the number of points purchased this time,
Insufficient points are shown to the user. When the user cancels the purchase on the notification page 61, he / she clicks the "return" button 62. When the button 62 is clicked, the content menu 52 is returned. On the contrary, when the user continues to purchase, he / she clicks the button 63 to purchase additional points. When the button 63 is clicked, the home page 64 for point purchase is displayed. When the additional purchase of points is completed, the customer management database 47 is updated as described above, and the page 41 is entered. The process after page 41 is the same as the above-mentioned contents.

When the user who enters the content top page 41 from the homepage 51 of the sales agency 12B wants to purchase prepaid points, or wants to check the remaining points even when the points are purchased, Click button 65. When the button 65 is clicked, the point purchase home page 64 is displayed, and as described above, points can be purchased. After purchasing the points, the paid content can be purchased as described above.

If the user who entered the contents top page 41 has not subscribed to the system at all,
By clicking the button 66, the procedure for new joining can be performed. In the case of a new subscription, the button 66 is clicked to move to the point purchase homepage 64.
On the homepage 64, the procedure described with reference to FIG. 6 can be performed.

Next, referring to FIG. 9, the process on the point purchase homepage 64 will be described.

The user who has moved to the point purchase home page 64 as described with reference to FIG. 8 purchases the necessary points according to the process shown in FIG. The user moves from the content top page 41 to the point purchase homepage 64. On the point purchase homepage 64,
A new column 71 and a member column 72 are provided separately. Click button 7 in column 71 for new users
Click 3 to go to page 74. On page 74, a user who has not subscribed to a Calre member and wishes to subscribe, clicks a button 75 to move to a Calre subscription home page 76 which is a charging service provided by NTT Communications Corporation. This homepage 7
At step 6, perform the enrollment procedure to become a member of Carre. The procedure for the new user ends here. After completing the subscription procedure, the user starts the procedure from the content top page 41 again.

The user who has already subscribed to the Carre member on page 74 clicks button 77 to move to page 78. Page 78 is a page of the point purchase site.
On this page 78, a column 79 for entering a calle ID, a column 80 for entering the number of points to be purchased, and a column 81 for entering the number of points already possessed are provided. Fill in these fields as required. Further, a "return" button 82 and a "next" button 83 are provided. When the button 82 is clicked, the home page 64 is returned to. When the button 83 is clicked, the confirmation page 84 is displayed. The confirmation page 84 is a page for confirming the input content entered on the page 78. The items to be confirmed are the number of points to purchase and the payment amount in Calre. In addition, information about carre is also presented. The page 84 is provided with a “return” button 85 and a “agreement” button 86. Clicking on button 85 returns to page 78. When the button 86 is clicked, the page 87 of Callet is moved to. On page 87 of the Calle page, enter the Callet ID and the Calle password.
8, 89 are provided. When the "OK" button 90 is clicked after making predetermined entries in these fields, the customer management DB 47 described above is updated (91) and the page 92 is displayed. In page 92, the calle ID, the point password (when coming from the column 71 of page 64), and the number of owned points are described. When the “Return” button 93 is clicked, the content top page 41 is displayed.

Again, on the point purchase home page 64, a "return" button 94 and a "next" button 95 are provided at the lower end. A user who is a member enters the Calre ID in the column 96. Also, if you click the button 94, the content top page 4
Move to 1. When the button 95 is clicked, the page 97 is displayed. On page 97, a history database display 98 is shown to the member user. The contents of the history database include the calle ID, the number of remaining points, the purchased point password, and the date of use. On the page 97, buttons 98 and 99 for "return" and "additional purchase of points" are provided. When the button 98 is clicked, it returns to the point purchase homepage 64. When the button 99 is clicked, the point purchase site 78 is moved to. Point purchase site 7
On page 8, the display is performed in a state where numerical values have already been entered in the columns for the calle ID and the number of points already possessed based on the conventional data. Therefore, the user fills in only the number of points to be newly purchased in the corresponding column 80. Page of point purchase site, subsequent pages 84, 87, 9
The process in 2 is the same as that described above. When the page password comes from page 97, the point password on page 92 is the same as the conventional one. The user who has accumulated the number of points as described above shifts to the content top page 41 again and shifts to the stage of purchasing the content.

[0068]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, it is the sale of points as contents on the Internet, in which the user uses the user terminal and the contents and merchandise via the Internet network. In order to purchase paid contents, products, and services from sellers of services, a sales agent is provided, so that the content seller can concentrate on the creation and can promote sales by a specialized sales agent. In addition, since a prepaid point sales system has been established for charging and paying for the purchase of products to be sold, it is possible to appropriately charge contents, products and services, and it is inexpensive for users even for small charges. Moreover, since the anonymity is secured by the transaction with the ID and it is easy to use, and the telecommunications carrier collects the price with a relatively low fee, it is possible to reliably collect the charge.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram showing points and positioning in a system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram showing the conceptual diagram of FIG. 1 more specifically as a processing flow.

FIG. 3 is a system configuration diagram conceptually showing a representative embodiment of a method and system for selling and charging paid content stored in a recording medium according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a list showing players involved in the system according to the present embodiment and their roles.

FIG. 5 is a relationship diagram showing a business flow in the system according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a relational flow chart showing a processing procedure of the prepaid type point sales system in the system according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 7: User (customer) in the system according to the present embodiment
It is a figure explaining delivery of the information of.

FIG. 8 is a relationship flow chart showing a purchase flow of contents, products, and services using points in the system according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a relationship flow chart showing a purchase flow of contents, products, and services using points in the system according to the present embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 users (customers) 11 Internet network 12 Content providers 12A Content seller 12B distributor 13 Sales site 14 Billing system 15 User terminal 16-point management system System to earn 17 points

Claims (11)

[Claims] 1. A content provider comprises a content seller and a sales agent, the content seller is dedicated to content creation, the sales agent promotes content sales, and the sales agent is via the Internet. A sales site equipped with an information database that stores content menus and paid contents, and users purchase points using a billing system operated by a point management company. Using the Internet to access the sales site, download the content menu to the user terminal via the Internet, and if there is something that the user wants to purchase based on the content menu, select content The point operated by the point management company Content is downloaded from the information database via a management system, and the point management system is used to charge the fee in accordance with the download. How to charge. 2. The user purchases points that may be a payment price in advance, and purchases the contents by using the remaining points, and the points management system records the points of the users. The method of selling and charging a content product / service according to claim 1, wherein the balance is managed. 3. The user considers points that can be paid by the point management company as contents, purchases points by using a content charging method, and pays for goods sales and services at the points. The method of selling and charging a content product / service by points according to claim 2, wherein the purchase of the product or service is enabled by the content charging method. 4. When the user purchases a service that is charged by the point purchased from a point management company, the point is subtracted according to the usage time of the service to charge the hour. Claim 2
How to sell and charge content products and services based on the points described. 5. A sales site provided with a content seller dedicated to the creation of content, an information database consigned for sale by the content seller, accessible via the Internet, and having a content menu and pay content. A sales agent that promotes the sale of the content via this sales site, a billing agent that charges points under the prepaid point system when selling and purchasing the content, and for each user And a point management company that manages the number of points of the user, the user accessing the sales site via the Internet using the user terminal, and accessing the content menu to the user terminal via the Internet. Download and content based on the content menu The selection is performed, the content is downloaded from the information database via the point management system operated by the point management company, and the point management system pays points using the downloaded contents. A system for selling and billing content products and services by using points. 6. The user, from the billing agent,
The point according to claim 5, wherein points that can be used for payment are purchased in advance, the content is purchased using the remaining point number, and the point management company manages the point number of the user. A system for selling and charging content products and services. 7. The user considers points that can be paid by the billing agent as contents, purchases points by using a content billing method, and pays for sales of goods and services at the points. 6. The system for selling and charging content products / services by points according to claim 5, wherein the purchase of products or services is enabled by the content charging method. 8. When the user purchases a service that is time-charged with points purchased from the billing agent, the points are subtracted according to the usage time of the service, and the time is charged, and the point management is performed. The system for selling and charging content products / services according to claim 5, wherein the system is managed by a company. 9. The user considers points that can be paid by a billing agent as content, purchases points by using the content billing method, and pays for product sales and services at the points, thereby obtaining content. A point sales and billing system characterized by enabling purchase of goods or services by a billing method. 10. When the user purchases a service that is time-charged with points purchased from a billing agent, points are subtracted according to the usage time of the service to charge the time. Point sales and billing system. 11. An individual is used as a means of paying some kind of consideration on the Internet, using the value of money as a point.
A point sales and billing system characterized by enabling a small amount of payment, anonymity, and a low fee by enabling the transfer of value by increasing or decreasing the number of points specified in D.