JP2003203165A - Auction system for automatically raising price with lapse of time - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a system being nondifficult for a chance for a bidder to determine in the relationship between a bidding price and time in a method for eliminating a mismatch between a seller and a purchaser, preventing a successful bid price from unjustly rising, relatively requiring no time up to a successful bid for an exhibitor, and preventing the successful bid price from becoming largely less than prediction in an auction in a communication network. <P>SOLUTION: This auction system devises a means for accepting no bidding of the other bidder by determining the successful bid by stopping the rise of a price when the first bidder appears after the price of a commodity automatically rises with the lapse of time. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an auction system using a communication network, and more particularly to an auction system for automatically raising the price of goods as time passes.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there have been a bulletin board system, an auction system, a price-down system, etc. when buying and selling products using a communication network.

The bulletin board system is a system in which a seller presents the price of a product, and a buyer sees the price and places an order. In this scheme, sellers tend to offer higher amounts because they want to sell higher. Moreover, since the buyer sets the price that he / she wants to buy at a low price, there are many mismatches between the seller and the buyer, and it is unlikely that a transaction will be established.

[0004] The auction system is a system in which the highest bid is awarded. In this method, winning the bid opponent is often a part of the purpose, and thus the winning bid price rises unreasonably, leaving the bidder dissatisfied.

There is a price-down system in which the offer price of a product automatically decreases with the passage of time. With this method, bidders often waited for prices to drop because they wanted to buy as cheaply as possible. Therefore, it takes a relatively long time for the seller to make a successful bid, and even if the successful bid is made, the seller is often successful at a price much lower than expected, which is a method of dissatisfaction. It was difficult for bidders to decide to bid while the price was high even if they first found the listed information. However, if you try to make the bid as cheaply as possible and wait for the price to drop, other bidders will win the bid, so it was a difficult and frustrating way to make a decision on the relationship between the bid price and time.

[0006]

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an auction in a communication network, eliminates a mismatch between a seller and a buyer, prevents the winning bid price from unreasonably rising, and further Aiming to provide a system in which it takes a relatively short time to make a successful bid, and the winning bid price does not fall significantly below expectations, and it is not difficult for bidders to make a decision on the relationship between the bid price and time. And

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is an auction system comprising a server computer connected to a plurality of seller terminals and a plurality of bidder terminals via a communication network. Then, a means for collecting data on the product to be auctioned from the seller terminal, a means for managing the collected data as a database, and a new selling price by increasing the selling price of the product every predetermined time. Means for setting and updating, means for transmitting the set price to the bidder terminal,
Means for receiving a response from the bidder terminal to the price transmitted to the bidder terminal, and means for stopping the increase of the selling price when there is a bid and determining a successful bid at the bid price. It is characterized by being provided in the server computer.

It is expected that the seller will set the cheap price to the initial price by using the method of sequentially increasing the prices of the products put up for auction and accepting the bid.
It is possible to prevent the occurrence of mismatch in terms of bidder and price. In addition, it is possible that bidders will make a successful bid as it is because it is possible to prevent inappropriate price hikes such as the method of making a bid for the highest bidder and bid at a reasonable price for bidders. The certainty of can be secured. Further, in the method of lowering the price of the product at every predetermined time, there is the trouble of finding a bid opportunity, but according to the present invention, the auction is convenient for the bidder without such trouble.

In order to determine one successful bidder from a plurality of bidders, the first bidder can be the successful bidder. Alternatively, a method of determining the winning bidder by lottery or the like can be adopted.

[0010] The price of the product is sequentially increased between a preset initial price and the highest price. The highest price is set
The purpose is to prevent the price from continuing to rise without the bidder appearing and the management cost of the server computer and the like from increasing more than necessary. If the item price rises above the maximum price, it will be deleted from the auction and the seller will be notified via email.

The time interval for increasing the price of a product may be constant or may change with the increase in price. It can also be changed for each item that is listed.

When any one of the winning bidders is determined, the winning bidder confirmation information is displayed on the bidder terminal of the winning bidder. Thereby, the successful bidder can know that he / she has made a successful bid.

When any one of the successful bidders is determined, the bid suspension information is displayed on the other bidder terminals. As a result, it is possible to inform other bidders that one of the bidders has already made a successful bid (or is executing the successful bid process), and it is possible to prevent wasteful bidding.

In addition, when the bid confirmation information is displayed, if the response to the bid confirmation information from the bidder's terminal of the successful bidder is not transmitted within a certain time, the server computer cancels the determination of the successful bidder and accepts the bid again. To resume. That is, the bid price is again raised sequentially, the price of the product is displayed on the bidder terminal, and the bid is accepted again. When the successful bidder is determined from a plurality of bidders, the successful bidder is re-determined from the bidders other than the determined successful bidders. As a result, it is possible to give an advantage to the bidder who once bids.

On the other hand, when a response to the successful bid confirmation information is transmitted from the bidder terminal of the successful bidder within a fixed time, the bid acceptance of the product is stopped.

[0016]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram of the auction system according to this embodiment. Exhibitor terminal 1a, 1
b and bidder terminals 2a, 2b, 2c are communication networks 3
Is connected to the server computer 7 via. The seller terminals 1a and 1b and the bidder terminals 2a, 2b and 2
Although c is distinguished for convenience of explanation, there is no distinction in actual use, and the seller terminal becomes the bidder terminal in some cases, and similarly, the bidder terminal becomes the seller terminal.

Exhibitor terminals 1a and 1b, bidder terminal 2a,
Reference numerals 2b and 2c have a function of inputting user's personal information and bids, a function of displaying auction information from the server computer 7, and a function of connecting to a communication network. Indicates an information terminal such as a personal computer or PDA, or a mobile phone.

The server computer 7 has a customer database 12 that stores information on exhibitors and bidders who participate in the auction, and a product database 13 that stores data on products to be auctioned.
The auction information is transmitted and displayed for b and 2c. The auction information can be transmitted from the server computer 7 to the bidder terminals 2a, 2b, 2c in a Web page format described in HTML, for example, and the bidder terminals 2a, 2b, 2c use a WWW browser to perform the auction information. Can be displayed in a Web page format. The communication network 3 may be wired or wireless, and may be the Internet, for example.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the server computer 7. The server computer 7 has an input control means 8 and an output control means 9 for connecting to the communication network 3, a control means 10 for controlling the server computer 7 as a whole, a control main program 11 for control, and Database 12 for storing information on sellers and bidders participating in the auction of
And a product database 13 that stores data of products to be auctioned.

The personal information of the customer database 12 stores, for example, ID, name, address, telephone number, credit number and the like. The ID is the control means 1 when the seller or the bidder indicates the intention to participate in the auction through the seller terminals 1a, 1b and the bidder terminals 2a, 2b, 2c.
0 can be given to each user and stored in the customer database 12. The assigned IDs are the exhibitor terminals 1a, 1b and the bidder terminals 2a, 2 via the communication network 3.
It is also transmitted to b and 2c.

The product database 13 stores data about products, specifically, photographs of products and characteristics of products, initial prices of auctions, maximum prices, price increases, and interval times. The initial price, the maximum price, the price increase range, and the like can be set by the seller who put up the auction at the time of the listing. At the start of the auction, the control means 10 displays an initial price together with a photograph of a product and product characteristics and accepts a bid from a bidder. When there is no bid, the price of the product is increased by the increment of the price stored in the product database 13 after a predetermined interval time (which may be set by the seller and stored in the product database 13) has passed. Bidder terminals 2a, 2 with the auction information raised
It is transmitted to b and 2c and displayed.

The bid information from the bidder terminals 2a, 2b and 2c is received by the input control means 8 via the communication network 3 and supplied to the control means 10. The control means 10
When there are a plurality of bidders in the bid price, one of the bidders is determined in the bid price. The determination process will be described later. The control means 10 transmits successful bid confirmation information to the determined successful bidder in, for example, a Web page format, and performs a successful bid process. On the other hand, for bidder terminals of other auction participants, we
Send and display page b.

4 and 5 show detailed processing of the auction method of this embodiment. First, the product to be put up for auction, the initial price of the product, the highest price,
The price increase range and the interval time are set (S101). The initial price and the highest price can be set by the seller who puts up the product and stored in the server computer 7.
The highest price can be set automatically on the server computer 7 side. For example, the highest price is 10
It is possible to prevent the seller from raising the management cost of the server computer 7 or the like unnecessarily because the seller sets the insane maximum price by permitting up to double times and refusing the registration more than that. The price increase range and the interval time may be set by the seller of the product, or may be automatically set on the server computer 7 side. The price increase range and the interval time do not have to be constant values and may be changed. For example, it is possible to increase the increase amount initially at the beginning of the increase and then increase the increase amount (or vice versa, increase the increase amount at the beginning and gradually decrease the increase amount). Raise (or increase) time
You can also

After setting the commodity, the initial price, the maximum price, the price increase range, and the interval time, the server computer 7 sets the W
The product and the initial price are posted on the eb page, transmitted to the bidder terminals 2a, 2b, 2c as auction information and displayed on the display unit (S102).

FIG. 6 shows an example of an auction information display screen 100 displayed on the display units of the bidder terminals 2a, 2b and 2c. A window 100a showing the state of the auction is displayed. Whether the auction is being held and the bid is accepted in this window 100a,
Displays whether the auction is suspended or has been successfully bid. The figure shows that an auction is in progress and bids are being accepted. Also, a picture window 100b of the product is displayed on the screen 100. The user can use this window 10
It is possible to confirm the commodity exhibited by 0b. In addition to the photograph, the characteristics of the product can be displayed. Further, on the screen 100, a window 100c showing the initial price (start price in the figure) set for the product and a window 100d showing the current price are displayed. The price of the product will be increased sequentially unless there is a bid.
The amount of money displayed on 0d will increase sequentially.
The bidder sees this price window 100d,
Determine whether to bid. Also, on the screen 100,
A window 100e showing the next increase timing and a window 100f showing the price increase range are displayed. The bidder's bid timing can be easily determined by displaying the next raise timing and the price increase range. of course,
It is possible to hide this information. In particular, when comparing the starting price and the current price, the low starting price left an impression on the bidder, and the current price seems to be comparatively high compared to that,
It is desirable to hide the starting price because it may discourage purchasing.

Window 100d for displaying the current price
, And if the user wants to purchase the item,
The bid button 100g displayed on the screen 100 is operated (clicked with a mouse). When the bid button 100g is operated, the bidder terminal sends a bid to the server computer 7 via the communication network 3 in response to this operation.

Returning to FIG. 4 again, after displaying the initial price,
The server computer 7 is a bidder terminal 2a, 2b, 2c.
It is determined whether a bid has been made from (S103). If there is no bid, then it is determined whether a fixed time (for example, 2 hours) has passed (S104). This fixed time is the interval time set in S101. If a certain amount of time has not passed, bids are continuously monitored. If there is no bid and a certain period of time has passed, the server computer 7 increases the current price by the price increase amount set in S101 (S105). Further, it is determined whether or not the current price is higher than the maximum price set in S101 (S1
06). If it is already above the maximum price, the price cannot be raised anymore and the auction is ended. On the other hand, when the price is less than the maximum price, the price increased by the set increase amount is displayed on the bidder terminals 2a, 2b, 2c (S107). And again, the bidder terminals 2a, 2b,
Monitor bids from 2c.

Any one of the bidder terminals 2a, 2b, 2c,
Alternatively, when a plurality of bid requests are made (YES in S103), the server computer 7 proceeds to a predetermined successful bid process (S108). In this successful bid process, one of the bidders is determined as the successful bidder at the price at the time of bidding, that is, the bid price, and the successful bidder process is urged.

FIG. 5 shows a detailed flowchart of the successful bid process in FIG. First, the server computer 7 determines whether there are a plurality of bids (S201). It should be noted that this judgment may be made based on the number of bids within a predetermined time after displaying the new price, or when the first bid is made after displaying the new price, the first bid It is also possible to make a determination based on the number of bids within a time period (for example, 10 seconds) that can be considered to be almost the same time.

When there are no multiple bids, the bidder who bids is determined to be the winning bidder. On the other hand, if there are a plurality of bids, one of the bidders in the bid price is determined to be the successful bidder (S202). 2 for the method of determining the highest bidder
There is one, one is the method of deciding the first bidder to be the successful bidder, and the other is the method of deciding by a lottery. It is possible to select one of the methods depending on the number of bidders (for example, when the number of bidders is relatively small, the bidder is first, and when the number of bidders is relatively large, the lottery is selected). An appropriate method is selected as the lottery method, but information indicating that the lottery process is to be performed is transmitted to the bidder, participation confirmation in the lottery is confirmed, and the lottery process is executed. The lottery is executed to determine the winning bidder as the winning bidder, and the fact that the winning bidder is won is transmitted. This will be sent to the bidders who are not selected in the lottery.

After deciding one of the bidders as the winning bidder, the server computer 7 transmits and displays the winning bid confirmation information to the bidder terminal of the winning bidder (S203).

FIG. 7 shows an example of the successful bid confirmation information display screen 102 displayed on the bidder terminal of the successful bidder.
A window 102c for confirming the settlement means (payment method) is displayed together with a window 102a showing the product name and a window 102b showing the winning bid price. The successful bidder finally confirms the successful bid on this screen 102, and a confirmation button 10
Operate 2d (click with mouse). When the confirmation button 102d is operated, the bidder terminal transmits a confirmation to the server computer 7 via the communication network 3 in response to this operation.

When the successful bid confirmation information is transmitted to and displayed on the bidder terminal of the successful bidder, it is desirable to display on the other bidder terminals that the successful bid process is being executed and the bid has not been accepted. . For example, in the screen 100 of FIG.
The window 100a is displayed as "Auction is underway", "Auction is suspended", "Auction process is in progress", etc., and new bids from other bidders are rejected.

In FIG. 5, after displaying the successful bid confirmation screen, the server computer 7 determines whether or not there is a response to the successful bid confirmation information from the bidder terminal of the successful bidder (S).
204). If there is a response within a fixed time, the auction ends with a successful bid. If there is no response within a fixed time, or if the successful bidder cancels the successful bid, the process proceeds to S103 in FIG. 4 to restart the auction again. That is, the bid price is displayed again, and the bid is accepted again from this price. In this case, on the screen 100 of FIG. 6, the display of the window 100a is returned from "auction suspended" to "auction in progress" again, and the bid from the bidder is accepted. However, if there are multiple bids and the bidder who was selected first in the lottery or who was determined to be the successful bidder did not make a successful bid, the bidder whose bid timing was the second earliest, Alternatively, the bidder selected in the second lottery is determined to be the winning bidder,
The successful bid confirmation information may be transmitted.

When auctioning a plurality of products at the same time, the server computer 7 uses the bidder terminal 2
It is desirable to transmit and display the status of the auction for each product to a, 2b, and 2c. In FIG.
An example of the auction list display screen 104 is shown. Window 10 showing the auction status of exhibited products
4a to 104c, a product name 104d, and a product property description window 104e are preferably displayed so that the user can grasp the situation at a glance. In addition, in the figure, “auction is being held”, “auction suspended”, and “successful bid” are displayed for each of the three products. When the product name displayed as "Auction is being held" is operated (eg, clicked with the mouse), the server computer 7 displays the auction information screen 100 shown in FIG.
It can be transmitted to b and 2c and displayed.

[0037]

As described above, according to the present invention, the price of an item put up automatically rises with the passage of time, and when the first bidder appears, the price increase is stopped and the bidders of other bidders are stopped. By taking measures to reject bids, it is a way for the seller to take a relatively short time to make a successful bid, and the winning bid does not fall far below expectations. The effect is that it is not difficult to make decisions in relation to.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram of a system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a configuration block diagram of a server computer in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of the structure of each database.

FIG. 4 is a processing flowchart of the embodiment.

5 is a detailed flowchart of the successful bid process of FIG.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of an auction information display screen.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of a successful bid confirmation information display screen.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram of an auction list display screen.

[Explanation of symbols]

1a, 1b ... Exhibitor terminal 2a, 2b, 2c ... bidder terminal 3 ... Communication network 7 ... Server computer 8: Input control means 9 ... Output control means 10 ... Control means 11 ... Main program for control 12 ... Customer database 13 ... Product database 100 ... Auction information display screen 102 ... Successful bid confirmation information display screen 104 ... Auction list display screen

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. An auction system comprising a server computer connected to a plurality of seller terminals and a plurality of bidder terminals via a communication network, and relates to an item to be auctioned from an unspecified number of seller terminals. A means for collecting data, a means for managing the collected data as a database, and a new selling price is set by increasing the selling price of the product every time a predetermined time passes,
A means for updating, a means for transmitting the set price to the bidder terminal, a means for receiving a response from the bidder terminal for the price transmitted to the bidder terminal, and an increase in the selling price when there is a bid And a means for determining a successful bid at the price at the time of bidding, the server computer is provided with an auction system. 2. The auction system according to claim 1, wherein the price of the product is sequentially increased between a preset initial price and a maximum price. 3. The auction system according to claim 1, wherein the prices of the products are sequentially increased at preset time intervals. 4. The auction system according to claim 1, wherein when a plurality of bids are made, the first bidder is determined as the successful bidder. 5. The auction system according to claim 1, wherein successful bid confirmation information is displayed on a bidder terminal of the successful bidder. 6. The auction system according to claim 1, wherein when one successful bidder is determined, the bid suspension information is displayed on the bidder terminal. 7. The auction system according to claim 1, wherein the server computer cancels the decision when a response to the bid confirmation information from the bidder terminal of the successful bidder is not transmitted within a fixed time. system. 8. The auction system according to claim 7, wherein when a plurality of bids are made, the successful bidder is determined from bidders other than the successful bidder. 9. The auction system according to claim 7, wherein the bidder terminal receives a bid by displaying the price of the product, which is sequentially increased from the bid price, on the bidder terminal. 10. The auction according to claim 1, wherein when the response to the successful bid confirmation information is transmitted from the bidder terminal of the successful bidder within a predetermined time, the bid of the product is stopped. system.