JP2003122968A - Book sales system using network and its support system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve convenience in selecting a book in a virtual bookstore. SOLUTION: This book sales system produces PDF (Portable Document Format) type electronic contents using DTP (DeskTop Publishing) edit data obtained in a process of printing books in a printing company Z, prepares browsing electronic contents with a perusal restriction (page restriction or perusal time restriction) for protecting the copyright, and stores them in a contents storage pat 170. When a consumer X accessing to a site of an on-line bookstore X requests a search of a desired book, a search processing part 110 presents a search result list. When the consumer C requests the browsing on the book selected from the list, a browsing processing part returns browsing electronic contents. The consumer C can formally demand to buy it after browsing the contents of the desired book within the perusal restriction range.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a book sales system using a network and its support system, and more particularly to a book sales system used when operating an online bookstore on the Internet and its support system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the spread of the Internet, business forms using net sites have started to spread in many fields. In particular, in the field of goods sales business, the form of business using the Internet is becoming established, and various goods have been sold at virtual stores on the Internet. An online bookstore is a representative example of a virtual store deployed on such a network. Books (in this application, the term “book” is used as a generic term including so-called magazines, magazines, etc.) are, by their nature, a very wide variety of products, and are available in a normal store format. To make it abundant, it is necessary to display it in stores while holding a large amount of inventory. However, in the case of an online bookstore that operates on a network, it is possible to operate a store with a substantial variety of products simply by preparing the bibliographic information of each book as data. Further, a general consumer can access an online bookstore from home or the like using the Internet and place an order for a desired book without going to the store. As described above, since both the bookstore side and the consumer side can obtain their respective merits, it is expected that the business form of online bookstores using the network will increase more and more in the future.

When operating such an online bookstore, the bibliographic information of a large number of books, the customer information of a large number of customers, the usage history of each customer, etc. are stored, and the books that meet the consumer's request are searched. It is necessary to build a book sales system that fulfills the search processing function and the function for receiving orders for consumer purchase requests. In the case of a major online bookstore, such a book sales system is usually constructed by using a plurality of server devices to open a dedicated online bookstore site. In a typical online bookstore,
After logging in to the bookstore site, consumers can
The procedure is to search based on information such as the title, author, publisher, genre, confirm sales conditions such as price and delivery date, and then enter a formal purchase request. When there is a formal purchase request, the online bookstore side will perform the procedure for shipping and the procedure for charging.

[0004]

From the point of view of the general consumer, the online bookstore has the merit that, as described above, it is possible to place an order for a desired book while staying at home. However, as compared with the case of using an actual bookstore, there is a great disadvantage in that the act of “taking the book into the hand and examining the contents for purchase” cannot be performed. Of course, if you have already decided which books to buy,
The existence of such a demerit does not become a big problem. After confirming the publisher and the title of the book to be purchased on the online bookstore site, the consumer can place an order for the book if there is no mistake. However, the process by which consumers decide to buy a book
The act of "handing over a book and examining the contents for purchase" (hereinafter, such a act will be generically referred to as "browsing" in this application) has a very important meaning. There are many. In fact, many consumers
You will be able to select the book you want to purchase while doing a "browse" at a real bookstore.

However, at present, such "stand-by reading" cannot be performed at online bookstores. Of course, by doing a search on the online bookstore site,
It is possible to obtain bibliographic information such as publisher, title, author, year of publication, genre, price, brief introduction of each book. However, these pieces of information are merely auxiliary information for explaining the content of the book body, and are not the content itself of the book. Therefore, the act of selecting a book to be purchased with the feeling of browsing in an existing bookstore cannot be performed in the current online bookstore. As described above, the online bookstore is much inferior to the existing bookstore in terms of the convenience of being able to select an arbitrary book in the store.

[0006] Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a book sales system using a network and a support system for the same, which can improve the convenience of general consumers in selecting arbitrary books in a virtual store. .

[0007]

[Means for Solving the Problems] (1) A first aspect of the present invention is to sell a book using a network, which is connected to a consumer computer through a network and has a function of selling books online. In the system, a bibliographic information storage unit that stores bibliographic information data of books to be sold, and a content storage unit that stores browsing electronic content data for browsing the contents of the books to be sold with restrictions, A search processing unit that searches the bibliographic information storage unit based on a search request given from the consumer computer, and transmits the bibliographic information data of a predetermined book obtained as a search result to the consumer computer, and the consumer processing unit. Based on the browsing request given from the computer, the browsing electronic content data about the specific book stored in the content storage is An order-reading processing unit that transmits to the consumer computer and an order-receiving process for a specific book whose bibliographic information data is stored in the bibliographic information storage unit based on a purchase request given from the consumer computer And a section.

(2) A second aspect of the present invention is the above-mentioned first aspect.
In the book sales system using the network according to the above aspect, the customer information storage unit for storing the personal information of the accessed consumer and the use of the consumer whose personal information is stored in the customer information storage unit A usage history storage unit for storing history is further provided.

(3) A third aspect of the present invention is the above-mentioned second aspect.
In the book sales system using the network according to the aspect, as a usage history storage unit, a reading history storage unit that stores a history of a consumer's reading request, and a purchase history storage that stores a history of a consumer purchasing request. And a section.

(4) A fourth aspect of the present invention is a system for supporting a book sales system using a network, which is connected to a consumer computer through a network and has a function of selling books by online processing. ,
Based on a content storage unit that stores electronic content data for browsing for restricting browsing of the contents of books to be sold, and a content storage unit based on a browsing request given from a consumer computer. And a reading processing unit for transmitting reading electronic content data of a specific book to a consumer computer.

(5) A fifth aspect of the present invention relates to the above-mentioned first aspect.
~ In the book sales system or its support system using the network according to the fourth aspect, as the electronic content data for reading, content data restricted so that only a part of the content of the book can be browsed Is used.

(6) A sixth aspect of the present invention is based on the above first aspect.
~ In the book sales system or the support system thereof using the network according to the fourth aspect, the content data having a limitation on the browsing time of the book is used as the electronic content data for reading.

(7) A seventh aspect of the present invention relates to the above-mentioned first aspect.
~ In the book sales system using the network according to the third aspect, the first server device managed by the first business entity that sells books online and the second business entity that provides the reading service are managed And a second server device for providing the first server device, the first server device having at least an order processing unit, the second server device having at least the reading processing unit, and the reading processing unit for the consumer. According to the history of the reading request, the charging process from the second business entity to the first business entity is performed.

(8) An eighth aspect of the present invention is based on the above-mentioned seventh aspect.
In the book sales system using the network according to the aspect of (1), for each book, an order volume parameter that is determined based on the number of order volumes in the order processing unit, and a reading number parameter that is determined based on the number of reading times in the reading processing unit. The billing amount for each book is calculated in consideration of both.

(9) A ninth aspect of the present invention is based on the above-mentioned seventh aspect.
In the book sales system using the network according to the aspect, when the order processing unit receives an order request, the order processing unit records a purchase history indicating which consumer purchased which book, and performs the reading processing. When a reading request is issued, the department records the reading history indicating which consumer read which book, and inspects the purchase history and reading history to ensure the same consumption. About the same book
When both the order request and the reading request are issued, a predetermined consideration is recorded and the charge amount is calculated.

(10) A tenth aspect of the present invention is to provide DTP edit data used for printing a book in a book sales system or its support system using the network according to the first to ninth aspects. , A data conversion unit for converting electronic content data suitable for browsing on a consumer computer, and a browsing restriction addition for creating browsing electronic content data by adding a predetermined browsing restriction to this electronic content data And a part are further provided.

(11) An eleventh aspect of the present invention provides a computer program for operating a computer as a book sales system using the network according to the first to tenth aspects or a support system thereof, This is recorded on a computer-readable recording medium so that it can be distributed.

[0018]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION The present invention will be described below based on illustrated embodiments.

§1. The basis of the book sales system according to the present invention
This Configuration FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a book sales system using a network according to a basic embodiment of the present invention. In the illustrated example, the book sales system 100 is connected via a network N (actually, the Internet).
3 consumer computers (actually PCs) 2
The state of connection to 01, 202 and 203 is shown.
Of course, in actual operation, the book sales system 100
Will receive access from a larger number of consumer computers. Further, the consumer computer does not necessarily have to be a personal computer, and may be a mobile phone, a portable electronic terminal device, or the like (the “consumer computer” in the present application refers to the book sales system 100 via a network. Widely refers to electronic devices with the function to).

In the basic embodiment shown here, the book sales system 100 is a vendor X operating an online bookstore.
Server computer (it may be one, but in practice, it is preferable that it is composed of a plurality of server computers). Here, focusing on the function of the server computer, the book sales system 100 is regarded as a system including seven components. That is, as shown in the figure, the book sales system 100 includes three processing units, a search processing unit 110, an order processing unit 120, and a reading processing unit 130, a bibliographic information storage unit 140, a customer information storage unit 150, and a usage history storage. The storage unit 160 includes four storage units, a unit 160 and a content storage unit 170. Of these components, the reading processing unit 130 and the content storage unit 170 are included.
Is a component peculiar to the book selling system 100 according to the present invention and is an essential component for forming the feature of the present invention, but each of the other components is also used in the conventional book selling system. It is a well-known constituent element. Therefore, first, known components will be described below.

The bibliographic information storage unit 140 is a component for storing bibliographic information data of books to be sold, and regarding each individual book handled at this online bookstore,
The bibliographic information data including character data such as the title, author, publisher, year of publication, genre, price, brief introduction of contents, and, if necessary, image data such as a cover is stored as a database. Further, information such as a keyword given to each book may be included. The search processing unit 110 searches the database in the bibliographic information storage unit 140 in response to a search request from the consumer,
It has a function of presenting the result to the consumer. In the case of this embodiment, the search processing unit 110 has a function of presenting a search page to a consumer computer in the form of a Web page. Therefore, by accessing the search processing unit 110 from a consumer computer having a Web browser function, the consumer can receive a desired book search service.

For example, when a search request “book published by publisher Y with the title XX” is issued from the consumer computer 201, the search processing section 110 is stored in the bibliographic information storage section 140. The database of the present bibliographic information is searched, and the bibliographic information regarding the corresponding book is transmitted to the consumer computer 201 in the form of a Web page to be presented. Specifically, information such as the title, author, publisher, year of publication, genre, price, brief content introduction, and cover image of the book is displayed on the screen of the consumer computer 201. .
Also, if necessary, by communicating with a computer that stores inventory information in a book warehouse (not shown),
A function of presenting information such as inventory availability and delivery date to the consumer computer 201 may be provided. Of course, search requests include "books on animals" and "Tanaka ○
It may include an arbitrary search key such as "work by husband". In this case, when there are a plurality of hit books, for example, a presentation method of presenting the book titles as a list and then presenting more detailed bibliographic information about the book having the specific title clicked by the consumer is provided. Can be taken. As described above, a method for allowing a customer to search for a specific book on an online bookstore site is a well-known method, and thus a detailed description thereof will be omitted here.

A consumer who finds a desired book by such a search process can obtain the price, delivery date, delivery fee,
After confirming sales conditions such as payment method (this information is also presented to the consumer computer in the form of a Web page together with the search result by the search processing unit 110), the sale is performed. If you agree with the terms, you will issue a formal purchase request. Actually, when the consumer selects a book to be purchased on the Web page showing the search result and then clicks a “buy” button or the like, the consumer computer moves to the book sales system 100. A formal purchase request will be transmitted. The order processing unit 120, based on the purchase request given from the consumer computer, receives the bibliographic information storage unit 14
Ordering processing for a specific book whose bibliographic information data is stored in 0 is performed. This ordering process identifies the consumer who issued the purchase request and the book to be purchased, records that the order for the particular book from the particular consumer has been officially received, and This is a process of performing various procedures for shipping a book to the specific consumer and performing various procedures for charging the specific consumer.

The order processing unit 120 actually uses the customer information in the customer information storage unit 150 to perform the order processing described above, and records the result in the usage history storage unit 160. The customer information storage unit 150 has a function of storing personal information (for example, name, address, telephone number, age, credit card number, etc.) of a consumer who has accessed. The consumer will input such personal information on the Web page when making a purchase request. In addition,
In this embodiment, personal information once input is stored and held in the customer information storage unit 150, so if the consumer performs an operation of inputting such personal information at the time of first purchase,
At the second and subsequent purchases, the input of these personal information can be omitted. Of course, at the time of providing the search service by the search processing unit 110, the consumer may be prompted to input personal information. Usage history storage unit 16
0 has a function of storing the usage history of the consumer whose personal information is stored in the customer information storage unit 150. When a specific consumer makes a purchase request for a specific book, the order processing unit 120 uses the history of purchasing the book as a usage history of the consumer as a usage history storage unit 160.
Perform the process of recording inside. In practice, it is preferable to store the date of purchase request, the selling price, the payment method, and the like as the usage history in the usage history storage unit 160. Of course, the use history regarding the search service may be recorded in the use history storage unit 160 when the search service by the search processing unit 110 is used.

A feature of the present invention is that the book sales system 100 is used.
Inside, the reading processing section 130 and the content storage section 170
There is a point. These two components are the action of "consuming the book and actually examining the contents for purchase" to the consumer who uses the online bookstore realized by the book sales system 100, that is, "reading". Is a component for making a pseudo. In the content storage unit 170, for reading while browsing the contents of individual books (books in which bibliographic information data is stored in the bibliographic information storage unit 140) handled by this online bookstore, with restrictions. The electronic content data is stored, and the browsing processing unit 130, based on the browsing request given from the consumer computer, reads the browsing electronic content about the specific book stored in the content storage unit 170. It has the ability to send data to consumer computers. Of course, it is not necessary to prepare the reading electronic content data in the content storage section 170 for all the books for which the bibliographic information data is prepared in the bibliographic information storage section 140. From the viewpoint, it is preferable to prepare the reading electronic content data for as many books as possible.

At an online bookstore operated using the book sales system 100 according to the present invention, consumers are
It is not necessary to immediately purchase the book presented as the search result by the search processing unit 110, and the contents can be examined and examined online. That is, when the consumer wants to see the contents of the book presented as the search result by the search processing unit 110, the consumer may perform a read request for the book. For example, on the Web page showing the search result by the search processing unit 110, the “reading” button is displayed together with the bibliographic information of the specific book, and the consumer selects the specific book and then reads “reading”. By clicking the “” button, the consumer computer may transmit the reading request for the selected book to the book sales system 100. When there is such a reading request, the reading processing unit 130 performs a process of reading the reading electronic content data of the selected book from the content storage unit 170 and transmitting the reading electronic content data to the consumer computer. Note that the selected book that is the target of the reading request does not necessarily have to be the book presented as the search result by the search processing unit 110. For example, when a consumer accesses the site of this online bookstore, the reading processing unit 13
From 0, proactively present a message that encourages the reading of a specific book by heading such as "Today's recommended new book → Click here for reading", and also present a predetermined "reading" button. If this is done, it is possible to have the viewer browse without waiting for the search operation by the consumer.

In this way, the browsing electronic content data transmitted to the consumer computer is not the bibliographic information but the electronic content that allows the consumer to browse the content itself of the book. , The contents of the book can be viewed on the screen of the consumer computer (in some cases, the setting may be such that the book can be printed and viewed by a printer). However, allowing consumers to browse the contents of books indefinitely is a problem in maintaining the business of an online bookstore, and it is also a hindrance from the viewpoint of copyright protection of each book. Will occur. Therefore, it is necessary to set some restrictions on the browsing electronic content data when browsing the content. In other words, in the present invention, data that allows the content of a book to be browsed with some restrictions is prepared as the electronic content data for reading.

The first specific method of adding a restriction to the content browsing is a method of limiting the content of a book so that only a part of the content can be browsed. For example, in the case of a book consisting of multiple chapters, only the contents of the first chapter can be browsed, or in the case of a book consisting of 100 pages,
This is a method of allowing only the contents of pages 5 to 10 to be viewed. In the case of adopting the first specific method, for example, the content storage unit 170 may be provided with the read-only electronic content data for only the viewable portion.

A second specific method of adding a limitation to the content browsing is a method of limiting the browsing time of a book to a fixed time. For example, if a restriction is added so that browsing is possible only for 3 minutes from the start of browsing, the consumer can freely browse any page of the book within the limited time of 3 minutes. it can. However, in the case of adopting the method of limiting the browsing time, if the same consumer repeatedly issues a reading request to the same book, the time limit will be substantially extended. Therefore, in practice, it is necessary to take measures so that the same consumer can make a single reading request for the same book only once. For example, when accessing the site of this online bookstore for the first time, be sure to ask the customer to register by entering the address, name, telephone number, etc. (the registered content is stored in the customer information storage unit 150). ), If a predetermined account is given to each consumer, and then access is performed using this account, each consumer can be specified by the account. Therefore,
If the same account makes repeated read requests for the same book, measures may be taken to reject the second and subsequent read requests.

When the first specific limiting method described above is adopted, the consumer can carefully examine the portions where the reading is permitted without worrying about time, but other than that, You can't browse the whole book, because you can't browse at all.
On the contrary, if the second specific restriction method described above is adopted, the consumer can examine the entire book,
Also, it is possible to examine only the part that interests you, but if you exceed the time limit, you will not be able to browse at all, so you cannot carefully examine it. As described above, since each of the two specific restriction methods has advantages and disadvantages, in practice, it is preferable to adopt a more suitable method according to the management policy of the online bookstore and the contents of the books handled. Of course, different restriction methods can be adopted for each individual book to be handled, and both restriction methods can be used together for the same book (for example, total browsing is limited to 3 minutes). However, only Chapter 1 can be viewed without any time limit).

The browsing restriction method for reading is not limited to the two specific restriction methods described above. In short, from the viewpoint of copyright protection, the content of the book is provided as it is. Other restriction methods may be used as long as measures can be taken to prevent this. For example, it is possible to adopt a limiting method such as viewing only the image part or only the character part. In the case of a book such as a photo book, an image with a low resolution (for example, a so-called thumbnail) is used. It is also possible to adopt a restriction method that only (images) can be viewed.

As described above, when the reading processing unit 130 provides the reading service, the history of the reading request issued by each consumer is stored in the usage history storage unit 160 as the usage history. Preferably. As described above, when a specific consumer makes a purchase request for a specific book, a purchase history indicating that the specific consumer purchased the specific book is stored in the usage history storage unit 160 by the order processing unit 120. Will be stored. Similarly, when a specific consumer makes a reading request for a specific book, the reading history indicating that the specific consumer has read the specific book is used by the reading processing unit 130. It may be stored in the storage unit 160. In this case, the usage history stored in the usage history storage unit 160 includes two types of history, a purchase history and a reading history.

§2. Specific Embodiment of the Present Invention Above, in §1, the basic embodiment of the book sales system according to the present invention was described. Here, a more specific embodiment of the present invention will be described in consideration of the actual situation of online bookstores currently performed in the real world.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a rough distribution route when a book is sold at a conventional general online bookstore. Here, the large rectangular portion surrounded by the one-dot chain line indicates the management area of the consumer and each business entity, the solid arrow indicates the flow of electronic data, and the broken arrow indicates the flow of physical objects. ing. As shown in the figure, in the business form shown in this block diagram, the consumer C, three online business entities X, a publisher Y, and a printing company Z are involved.

First, the publisher Y creates a manuscript as a source of a book, and the manuscript is submitted to the printing company Z.
In the figure, a manuscript consisting of a physical paper surface is shown sent from the publisher Y to the printing company Z. However, when the manuscript is prepared as electronic data at the publisher Y, a computer network is used. In many cases, the data is submitted as electronic data by using it. At printing company Z, most of them are currently DTP (Desk Top Publishing)
Editing and printing are done using the technology of. That is, the manuscript submitted by the publisher Y is the DTP editing device 3
10 (computer system in which software for editing printed matter is incorporated) is loaded, editing is performed by the editor or designer, and DTP editing data in page units is created. Actually, using the DTP editing device 310,
Images such as photographs will be input as data through the scanner device, trimming will be performed, and regarding character data, input will be performed from the keyboard, etc., fonts and sizes will be specified, and page allocation will be performed. . In this way, when the page-by-page DTP edit data is created, this DTP edit data is sent to the printing machine 320, and this printing machine 320 prints on the actual paper surface, cuts it, and performs the actual book. Is completed.

The books produced by the printing company Z in this manner are delivered to the publisher Y, which is the orderer, and then delivered from the publisher Y to each bookstore or agency (in some cases, depending on the case). May be delivered directly from the printing company Z to a bookstore or an agency). In the illustrated example, the book is delivered from the publisher Y into the book warehouse ST of the online bookstore X. Of course, in some cases,
There is also a business form in which the online bookstore X itself does not hold an inventory, and provides a book warehouse ST at an agency store or the like. Thus, a large number of books published by various publishers are stored in the book warehouse ST, and the books stored here are finally delivered to the consumer C.

Next, a general procedure for the consumer C to purchase a desired book at the online bookstore X will be described. First, the consumer C uses the Internet terminal device such as a personal computer to access the network N to access the online bookstore X.
Log in to the site operated by. In the example shown here,
The search processing unit 110 not only has a book search processing function,
It has a function of performing customer registration processing, and when the consumer C accesses the site of the online bookstore X for the first time, customer registration is performed with a predetermined account. That is, the consumer C is required to input personal information such as name, address, telephone number, age, and password on the Web page of the online bookstore X at the time of first access. When the consumer C inputs these personal information on the Web page, a predetermined account is given, and the personal information is stored in the customer information storage unit 150 under this account. The consumer C can log in by entering an account and a password at the time of the second and subsequent accesses.

When the consumer C logs in to the site of the online bookstore X, the consumer C gives a search request for a desired book. As described above, this search request includes data such as the book title and publisher. The search processing unit 110 searches the bibliographic information storage unit 140 in response to the search request,
The search result is presented to the consumer C. Bibliographic information storage unit 140
As described above, the bibliographic information data on the books handled by the online bookstore X (usually stored as stock in the book warehouse ST) is stored in the search processing section 110. The process of presenting the bibliographic information data regarding the book that matches the search condition to the consumer C as the search result is performed. It should be noted that the search processing unit 110 communicates with a computer (not shown) that manages the inventory of books stored in the book warehouse ST to confirm the inventory, if necessary, and the delivery date as a part of the retrieval result. The information regarding can be presented to the consumer C.
The consumer C confirms the bibliographic information and the delivery date presented as the search result, and then issues a formal purchase request for the specific book.

When there is a purchase request from the consumer C, as described above, the order receiving processing unit 120 performs the order receiving processing. This purchase request includes the account given to the consumer C and the information specifying the book to be purchased, and the order processing unit 120 cooperates with the customer information in the customer information storage unit 150. By taking the above, it is possible to recognize which customer purchased which book, and to recognize which book should be delivered to which destination. Therefore, the order processing unit 120 gives an instruction to a terminal device (not shown) in the book warehouse ST to deliver a specific book to a specific destination. Further, the order processing unit 120 performs a process of storing a purchase history indicating which customer purchased which book at what time in the usage history storage unit 160, and further performs a charging process for the customer (issue a bill or issue a bill). Payment process by credit card). Thus, the book ordered by the consumer C is delivered from the book warehouse ST to the consumer C's hand.

The distribution channel described above with reference to the block diagram of FIG. 2 shows a business form performed in a conventional general online bookstore. Next, a specific embodiment suitable for carrying out the present invention in such a business form will be described with reference to the block diagram of FIG. Similar to the form shown in FIG. 2, the business form shown in FIG. 3 is a form in which the flow of goods and information occurs between the consumer C, the online bookstore X, the publisher Y, and the printing company Z. The same components as those shown in are indicated by the same reference numerals. The feature of the embodiment shown in FIG. 3 is that the printing company Z provides a reading service peculiar to the present invention. Comparing the block diagram shown in FIG. 2 with the block diagram shown in FIG. 3, there is almost no substantial difference in the configuration of the online bookstore X. Formally, the bibliographic information storage unit 140 shown in FIG. 2 is the bibliographic information storage unit 140x in FIG. 3, but in the case of the form shown in FIG. 14
Since 0z is provided, it is based on consideration for convenience for distinguishing the two. Further, the usage history storage unit 160 shown in FIG. 2 is the purchase history storage unit 160x in FIG. 3, but in the case of the form shown in FIG. 3, both the purchase history and the browsing history are used as the usage history. The purchase history is stored in the purchase history storage unit 160x under the control of the online bookstore X, and the reading history is stored under the management of the printing company Z.
This is because it is stored in z.

After all, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, the consumer C
Is a server device Sx managed by the online bookstore X (a portion configured by the search processing unit 110, the order processing unit 120, the bibliographic information storage unit 140x, the customer information storage unit 150, and the purchase history storage unit 160x: book sales And a server device S managed by the printing company Z.
z (a portion configured by the browsing processing unit 130, the bibliographic information storage unit 140z, the browsing history storage unit 160z, and the content storage unit 170: constitutes a support system for the book sales system) via the network N. Although provided, the configuration of the server device Sx managed by the online bookstore X is almost the same as that of the conventional business form shown in FIG. Further, the consumer computer 200 operated by the consumer C does not need to be specially modified. In other words, when the present invention is introduced in the case where the service is currently provided in the business form shown in FIG. 2, it is possible to deal with it by simply modifying the system under the control of the printing company Z. Yes, with minimal modification to the online bookstore X system. In fact, as a modification to the system of the online bookstore X, the search processing unit 110 is
Web showing search results to consumer computer 200
When presenting the page, a message indicating that reading is possible and a reading button are added to this Web page, and the reading request is issued by the consumer clicking the reading button. In this case, it is only necessary to prepare a mechanism for linking the site of the reading processing unit 130 in the server device Sz under the control of the printing company Z. Further, when the browsing of the site of the browsing processing unit 130 is completed, a link is set again so as to return to the site of the retrieval processing unit 110.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, the printing company Z employs the operation of providing the reading service from the printing company Z. Due to this business form, the printing company Z creates the reading electronic content. This is because the environment is most convenient for you. That is, as described in the business form shown in FIG. 2, in the printing company Z, the work by the DTP editing device 310 is performed based on the manuscript submitted by the publisher Y, and the DTP editing data is created. become. This D
Since the TP edit data is the data of each page of the book expressed as digital data in a predetermined format (the format adopted by the page layout software operating in the DTP editing device 310), it is used for reading. It can be diverted to the creation of electronic content data. The embodiment shown in FIG. 3 pays attention to the point that such DTP edit data is inevitably prepared in the printing company Z, and the printing company Z side diverts this DTP editing data for reading. This is based on the intention of creating electronic content data and then providing the reading service by using the electronic content data for reading.

In the printing company Z shown in FIG. 3, the route for producing and delivering a book from a manuscript is exactly the same as the route shown in the printing company Z shown in FIG. That is, the contents of the manuscript received from the publisher Y side are taken into the DTP editing device 310, and after being allocated and edited, output as DTP edit data. This DT
The P edit data is sent to the printing machine 320, and a physical book is produced. The produced book is delivered to the publisher Y. On the other hand, the printing company Z is provided with a data conversion section 330 and a browsing restriction adding section 340 in order to create the electronic content for reading. Here, the data conversion unit 330 has a function of converting DTP edit data used for printing a book into electronic content data suitable for browsing on the consumer computer 200. As described above, the DTP edit data is data described in a predetermined format adopted by the page layout software operating on the DTP edit device 310, and is the consumer computer 200.
Not suitable for browsing in. Therefore, the data conversion unit 330 performs a process of converting the format of the DTP edit data to obtain electronic content data having a format suitable for browsing on the consumer computer 200.

As the format of the electronic content data, any format may be used as long as it is a format suitable for browsing the consumer computer 200 and can be added with a browsing restriction described later. I don't care. However, in practice, the consumer C
When reading, it is preferable that the page display in the form as close as possible to the actual content of the page of the book is displayed on the display screen of the consumer computer 200. In the embodiment shown here, as the consumer computer 200,
In consideration of the fact that personal computers operating on various OSs are used, a PDF (Portable Document Format) format is used as the format after conversion by the data conversion unit 330. Documents in PDF format have the feature that they can display pages almost on the same platform on any OS platform.
PDF is currently the most popular format for distributing business documents. In addition, many personal computers currently on the market have Web browser software and software (Adobe Acrobat Reader: registered trademark) for browsing documents in PDF format installed as standard. 20
Assuming that such a personal computer is used as 0,
The consumer C can use the browsing service according to the present invention only by preparing a standard personal computer. Moreover,
It is possible to add various browsing restrictions to a document in PDF format, which is convenient for performing the browsing restriction adding process in the browsing restriction adding unit 340.

The browsing restriction adding unit 340 is a data conversion unit 3
A function of performing a process of creating the electronic content data for reading by adding a predetermined browsing restriction to the electronic content data (PDF file in the case of the embodiment shown here) output from 30 It is a constituent element. As mentioned above, copyright protection can be achieved by such browsing restrictions. As a typical browsing restriction method, as described above, there are a method of allowing only a part of the book to be viewed and a method of allowing the entire book to be viewed only within a predetermined time limit. When the former method is adopted, in the browsing restriction adding unit 340,
It suffices to perform a process of extracting only the data of a specific part such as the first chapter or the fifth to tenth pages from the electronic content data of the entire book. Alternatively,
As the electronic content data, the data for the entire book is included as it is, and “Adobe Acrobat
When browsing is performed using PDF browsing software such as "Reader", processing may be performed to set browsing restrictions so that only specific portions are permitted to be browsed. On the other hand, in the case of adopting the latter method, a process of embedding information indicating a predetermined time limit in a PDF format file is performed, and browsing is performed using PDF browsing software such as "Adobe Acrobat Reader". At this time, the process of setting the browsing restriction so that only the browsing within the time limit is permitted may be performed. Of course, what kind of browsing restriction should be set should reflect the intention of the publisher Y as the copyright holder, so in practice, after consulting with the person in charge of the publisher Y, You will decide what kind of access restrictions to impose on each book.

In any case, the browsing electronic content data output from the browsing restriction adding section 340 has been subjected to processing for adding some browsing restriction. The read-only electronic content data created in this way is stored in the content storage unit 170. Printing company Z
Will use the browsing electronic content data stored in the content storage unit 170 to provide the browsing service to the consumer C. In order to provide such a reading service, the server Sz managed by the printing company Z has a reading processing unit 130, a bibliographic information storage unit 140z, and a reading history storage unit in addition to the content storage unit 170. 160z is prepared. Bibliographic information storage unit 140z
Is a component that stores bibliographic information data about a book in which the electronic reading content data is stored in the content storage unit 170. In practice, the same data as the bibliographic information storage unit 140x in the online bookstore X is stored. You can use the one stored as it is. Alternatively, without providing the bibliographic information storage unit 140z, using the network N, the bibliographic information storage unit 140x prepared on the online bookstore X side.
You may take the form of accessing to and obtaining the necessary bibliographic information. The browsing history storage unit 160z is a storage unit for recording the history when the consumer C makes a browsing request. The reading processing unit 130 is the consumer C.
When there is a reading request from the content storage unit 170, the reading electronic content data (P
(DF file) is sent to the consumer computer 200, and information indicating the fact that who has browsed which book is read as a read history is stored in the read history storage unit 1.
A process of recording at 60z is performed.

After all, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, when the consumer C issues a search request for a desired book, the search processing unit 110 in the online bookstore X searches the database in the bibliographic information storage unit 140x. Is done
Up to the point where the search result is presented to the consumer C, FIG.
However, after that, if the consumer C desires, a reading request for the selected book can be issued. This reading request is accessed not to the online bookstore X side site but to the printing company Z side site, and is processed by the reading process unit 130. At this time, from the site on the online bookstore X side to the site on the printing company Z side, key information for specifying the book selected by the consumer C (for example, common to the bibliographic information storage unit 140x and the bibliographic information storage unit 140z). If a system is adopted in which a book code used as a file is transmitted, the reading processing unit 130 can specify the book for which the reading request is made based on this key information. Thus
The browsing electronic content data (PDF file) about the selected book is transmitted to the consumer computer 200, and the consumer C can browse (view) this under predetermined restrictions. Become. The consumer C can thus browse before issuing the formal purchase request. Of course, this reading action takes the form of browsing on the screen of the consumer computer 200 at a virtual bookstore, but at an actual bookstore, "a book is actually bought, For this reason, the user feels as if he or she is performing an act of “examining the content” in order to improve the convenience of the consumer C in selecting an arbitrary book.

As shown in FIG. 3, when the printing company Z adopts the embodiment of providing the reading service, from the business point of view, the printing company Z is returned with some consideration for providing the reading service. It is preferable to do so. That is, the printing company Z can charge the publisher Y for the price of printing the book, and the publisher Y can charge the online bookstore X for the price of the book wholesale. Yes, online bookstore X is consumer C
However, the printing company Z cannot charge the price for providing the reading service in this form.
Therefore, in this embodiment, the reading processing unit 130 is provided with a function of charging the online bookstore X from the printing company Z according to the history of the reading request from the consumer. As described above, since the history of the browsing request from the consumer C is stored in the browsing history storage unit 160z, the browsing processing unit 130 notifies the online bookstore X based on this browsing history. A predetermined consideration to be billed can be calculated.

One of the methods for rationally calculating the price AM for the online bookstore X is the number of ordered books in the order processing unit 120 (purchase history in the purchase history storage unit 160x) for each book handled by the online bookstore X. And the number of times of reading in the reading processing unit 130 (which can be calculated based on the reading history in the reading history storage unit 160z).
This is a method of calculating the billing amount for each book in consideration of both the reading frequency parameter determined based on the. For example, as the reading frequency parameter Pt for the book, the reading frequency is 10 times or less: Pt = 0%, the reading frequency is 11 times to 10,000 times: Pt = 1%, and the reading frequency is 10001 times or more: Pt = 2%. Is defined as the order quantity parameter Pj of the book, and Pj = the quantity of the order book of the book x sales profit of the book is defined, and the price AM for the book to the online bookstore X is AM = Pj. If defined as a parameter product of × Pt, the larger the number of readings and the larger the number of orders received, the larger the price AM, and the reasonable price can be calculated. If such a calculation method is adopted, for example, the number of times of reading of a predetermined book is 20000 times, the number of orders of this book is 5000, and the sales profit per book of the online bookstore X is 80. If it is a circle, Pt = 2
%, Pj = 80 yen / volume x 5000 volumes = 400000 yen, so the consideration value AM = 400000 yen x 2% = 800
A value of 0 yen will be calculated. In this case, 500
It can be judged that the order of 0 books has been received because it has contributed greatly to the fact that 20,000 readings have been conducted, so the consideration amount AM is calculated in consideration of this degree of contribution. However, even if the number of ordered books is 5000, if the number of times of reading is only 5, the contribution of reading is considered to be very small. Therefore, by applying Pt = 0%, The value AM = 400,000 yen × 0% = 0 yen is calculated.

As a method of more accurately calculating the price AM for the online bookstore X, when an order is requested, the order processing section 120 provides a purchase history indicating which consumer purchased which book. Purchase history storage unit 160
x to record, and when there is a reading request,
The reading processing unit 130 causes the reading history storage unit 160z to record a reading history indicating which consumer has read which book, and inspects the recorded purchase history and reading history. Thus, when the same consumer issues both an order request and a read request for the same book, a predetermined consideration (for example, 1% of the list price of the book is concerned.
This is the method of calculating the billing amount. Specifically, the purchase history storage unit 160
The purchase history of the consumer "Xiro Yamada" who purchased the specific book "XXXXX" is left in x, and the same "Xiro Yamada" is stored in the browsing history storage unit 160z. If there is a history of reading the same book "xxxx" by the consumer, the consumer "Yorou Yamada" reads "xxxxx".
Since it can be inferred that the book "x" was purchased after browsing the book, 1% of the list price of the book will be recorded as the consideration. If only the purchase history is left, it means that the purchase was made without reading, so the reading service does not contribute to the purchase, and the price is 0. Similarly, if only the reading history is left, it means that the reading service has not been made, but the reading service has not contributed, so the price is 0. is there.

Although the present invention has been described above based on several illustrated embodiments, the present invention is not limited to these embodiments and can be implemented in various other forms. For example,
Some examples are shown, and the price can be calculated by various methods other than this. Further, the embodiment shown in FIG. 3 shows an embodiment suitable for the most general business form at present, and the reading service is not necessarily provided by the printing company Z, and the publisher Y It can be provided by the online bookstore X itself, or by another business entity. Further, in the above-described embodiment, the PDF format file is used as the browsing electronic content data.
The electronic content data for reading can be provided in any format. Just PDF
"Adobe Acrobat Reader", which is the software for browsing the files in the format, is the software that is standardly installed on many PCs, and also has the function of restricting various browsing and printing. Software, and because the PDF document has an excellent function to faithfully reproduce the actual page state of a book,
Practically, it is preferable to provide the browsing electronic content data as a PDF file. Of course, if you take a method such as checking the consumer C account and then limiting the browsing time, "Adobe Acrobat Reade
If a special restriction form that cannot be realized by "r" is adopted, it is also possible to provide the browsing electronic content data described in a dedicated software format. However, in this case, in order to use the reading service, it is necessary to use a personal computer or the like in which this dedicated software is installed.

[0052]

As described above, according to the present invention, in a virtual store of a book sales system using a network,
It becomes possible for general consumers to improve the convenience of selecting an arbitrary book.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a basic configuration of a book selling system 100 using a network according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a rough distribution route of goods and information when a book is sold at a conventional general online bookstore.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a rough distribution route of goods and information when books are sold at an online bookstore using the book sales system according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

100 ... Book sales system (server computer) 110 ... Search processing unit 120 ... Order processing unit 130 ... Browsing processing unit 140, 140x, 140z ... Bibliographic information storage unit 150 ... Customer information storage unit 160 ... Usage history storage unit 160x ... Purchase History storage section 160z ... Browsing history storage section 170 ... Content storage section 200 ... Consumer computer (personal computer) 201-203 ... Consumer computer (personal computer) 310 ... DTP editing device 320 ... Printing machine 330 ... Data conversion section 340 ... View restriction unit C ... Consumer N ... Network (Internet) ST ... Book warehouse Sx ... Server device managed by online bookstore X (book sales system) Sz ... Server device managed by printing company Z (support for book sales system System) X ... Online bookstore Y ... Publisher Z ... Printing company

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    (72) Inventor Takayuki Usui             1-1-1, Ichigaya-Kagacho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo             Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Kayoko Hiraoka             1-1-1, Ichigaya-Kagacho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo             Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Tomoko Mase             1-1-1, Ichigaya-Kagacho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo             Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd.

Claims (11)

[Claims] 1. A book sales system having a function of connecting to a consumer computer through a network and selling books online by means of a bibliographic information storage storing bibliographic information data of books to be sold. Section, a content storage section that stores electronic content data for reading for viewing the content of the book with restrictions, and a search of the bibliographic information storage section based on a search request given from the consumer computer. A search processing unit that transmits bibliographic information data of a predetermined book obtained as a search result to the consumer computer, and stores it in the content storage unit based on a reading request given from the consumer computer. A reading processing unit that sends reading electronic content data about a specific book being read to the consumer computer; A network comprising: an ordering processing section that performs ordering processing for a specific book whose bibliographic information data is stored in the bibliographic information storage section based on a purchase request given from a consumer computer. Book sales system using. 2. The book sales system according to claim 1, wherein a customer information storage unit for storing personal information of a consumer who has accessed, and a consumer information storage unit for storing personal information. A book sales system using a network, further comprising a usage history storage unit for storing a usage history of a person. 3. The book sales system according to claim 2, wherein the usage history storage unit stores a reading history storage unit that stores a history of the consumer's reading request and a history of the purchase request of the consumer. A book sales system using a network, which has a purchase history storage unit. 4. A system for supporting a book selling system having a function of selling a book by online processing, which is connected to a consumer computer through a network, wherein a book to be sold in the book selling system is Based on a content storage unit that stores electronic content data for browsing for restricting browsing of content, and a specific book stored in the content storage unit based on a browsing request given from the consumer computer. A system for supporting a book sales system using a network, comprising: a reading processing unit for transmitting the reading electronic content data for the above to the consumer computer. 5. The book sales system or the support system thereof according to claim 1, wherein the reading electronic content data is restricted so that only a part of the content of the book can be browsed. A book sales system that uses a network that is characterized by the content data being stored. 6. The book sales system or its support system according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the read electronic content data is content data to which a limitation is imposed on the reading time of the book. A book sales system that uses a characteristic network. 7. The book sales system according to claim 1, wherein a first server device managed by a first business entity that sells books online and a second server that provides a reading service are provided. And a second server device managed by the business entity, the first server device is provided with at least an order processing unit, and the second server device is provided with at least a reading processing unit. , The reading processing unit has a function of performing a charging process from the second business entity to the first business entity in accordance with a history of a consumer's reading request, a network is used. Book sales system. 8. The book sales system according to claim 7, wherein, for each book, an order book number parameter determined based on the number of order books ordered by the order processing unit and a reading process determined based on the number of times of reading by the reading processing unit. A book sales system using a network, characterized in that a billing amount for each book is calculated in consideration of both the number of times parameter and. 9. The book sales system according to claim 7, wherein the order processing unit has a function of recording a purchase history indicating which consumer purchased which book when an order request is made. The reading processing unit has a function of recording a reading history indicating which consumer has read which book when a reading request is made, and checks the purchase history and the reading history. By doing so, when the same consumer issues both an order request and a reading request for the same book, a predetermined consideration is recorded and a billing amount is used. Book sales system. 10. The book sales system or its support system according to claim 1, wherein the DTP edit data used for printing the book is converted into electronic content data suitable for browsing on a consumer computer. A network characterized by further comprising: a data conversion unit for converting; and a browsing restriction adding unit that creates browsing electronic content data by applying a predetermined browsing restriction to the electronic content data. Book sales system or its support system. 11. A computer program for operating a computer as the book sales system according to claim 1, or a support system thereof, and a computer-readable recording medium recording the computer program.