JP2006244212A - Electronic tender device, electronic tender method, and program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To accurately decide the assignment of merchandise when selling merchandise through a network, and to prevent any vicious vender from repeatedly committing any fraudulent action. <P>SOLUTION: As regards bid information received from a buyer device, a sponsor device calculates an expected evaluation value based on the probability of transaction success and transaction failure, and divides it into a speculation frame and a determination frame at random. As regards the speculation frame, the sponsor device defines a buyer device having the maximum expected evaluation value as a winner, and transmits the information of the winner and an interim payment sum to a seller device and the buyer device to make those devices perform transaction, and classifies the buyer device into transaction ending, and defines the evaluation of the seller device as OK in the case of the completion of transaction, and defines the evaluation of the seller device as NG in the case of the non-completion of transaction, and makes the buyer device pay the amount of a balance to the seller device when transaction is performed between the buyer device and the next seller device. Then, as regards the determination frame, the sponsor device arranges the buyer devices so that the evaluation values can be put in a descending order, and defines the buyer devices from the high rank to the order of the number of quantity of merchandise sales as winners, and transmits the information of the winner and the payment sum to the seller device and the buyer device. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an electronic bidding apparatus, an electronic bidding method, and a program for determining merchandise allocation and winning bid prices when selling merchandise over a network.

  In the Internet auction, the organizer site posts information on sales products transmitted from the seller, and the buyer obtains the information, determines the bid price, and bids the desired purchase price.

  The organizer collects bids from buyers and determines the winning bidder and winning bid for the item. A typical winning bidder and the method of determining the winning bid are British auctions. The British auction is a method of gradually auctioning from a low price, and when the price does not rise, the winning bid is the buyer who bids the price.

  Now, many auction sites provide trader reputation information (see, for example, Patent Document 1). This is data composed of the number of past transactions, the number of evaluations made as a good trader from each trading partner, the number of evaluations made as a malicious trader, and the like.

  The reason that reputation information is provided is to eliminate malicious traders. A malicious trader is a seller who does not send the product by receiving only the price, or a fraudulent act such as sending a product different from the presented product, or a fraudulent act such as receiving only the product and not paying the price Refers to the buyer who works.

  Although it is difficult to eliminate a malicious trader in a one-time transaction, it is possible to prevent a malicious trader from repeatedly performing fraud by using reputation information. Specifically, from the buyer's perspective, when different sellers sell the same product, reputation information is used in determining which seller's product to bid. Sellers with a high number of reputations as vicious traders are excluded from bidding options. This is also the same from the standpoint of the seller, and buyers who have obtained a high number of evaluations as malicious traders are excluded from the successful bidder candidates. In this way, malicious traders are prevented from committing fraud.

The applicant has not yet found prior art documents related to the present invention by the time of filing other than the prior art documents specified by the prior art document information described in this specification.
JP 2003-58740 A

By using reputation information, it is possible to eliminate malicious sellers to some extent. However, there is no reputation information for traders who have never traded. This causes the following problems.
First, consider a case where a newly entered seller who does not have reputation information is treated in the same manner as a malicious seller. At this time, there are fewer buyers participating in the seller's bidding, resulting in a situation where the transaction is not completed or the contract price is very low. Therefore, even if the new seller is actually a good seller, the product cannot be sold, and efficient allocation of the product fails.

  Next, consider a case where a newly entered seller is treated in the same way as a seller with a good reputation. However, new sellers are not necessarily good sellers. In other words, if a newly entered seller is actually a vicious seller, the buyer loses by doing the transaction. Eventually, buyers avoid dealing with new entrants, taking into account the possibility that the seller is malicious. Therefore, even if the new seller is actually a good seller, the product cannot be sold, and efficient allocation of the product fails.

  The escrow service is described here. An escrow service is provided on the Internet auction site. This is a method of preventing fraudulent behavior of traders by placing an escrow as a third party between the seller and the buyer and having the goods and the price exchanged. However, the escrow service does not function well when there are traders aiming to disrupt the auction site. If the seller engages in fraud, the buyer will be paid back, but the buyer will have to participate in another bid to purchase the product and the necessary product will not be available when needed .

In order to solve such a problem, in the present invention, an organizer device when a product is sold through a communication network determines a pair of a seller device and a buyer device to perform a transaction, and determines a successful bid price thereof. In electronic bidding,
(1) The organizer device receives the product data from the seller device via the communication network,
(2) The organizer device sends product data to the buyer device,
(3) For the bid information received from the buyer device, the organizer device calculates an expected evaluation value based on the probability of transaction success and transaction failure, and then randomly divides it into a speculative frame and a fixed frame,

(4) The organizer ’s device is
(4-a) arrange in descending order of expected evaluation values,
(4-b) The provisional payment amount of the buyer's device is the number of seller devices selling the product + the first expected evaluation value,
(4-c) The buyer device having the largest expected evaluation value is the winner, and information on the winner and the provisional payment amount is transmitted to the seller device and the buyer device,
(4-d) Decrease the number of seller devices by 1,
(4-e) The organizer device receives, from the buyer device, information indicating whether the transaction has been completed with the seller device or whether the transaction has not been completed,
(4-f) If the transaction is completed, the buyer device is classified as traded,
(4-g) If the transaction has not been completed, the provisional payment amount of the buyer's device is updated to the number of seller devices that sell the product + the first expected evaluation value. Let the buyer device pay to the seller device,

(4-h) If the number of seller devices becomes zero, go to step (5), otherwise return to step (4-c),
(5) If the organizer device sells the second or later product regarding the seller device that has completed the transaction in the speculation frame,
(5-a) Calculate the sum of the number of products sold after the second one,
(5-b) For the buyer device assigned to the confirmation frame, the evaluation values are arranged in descending order,
(5-c) Winners from the top to the number of items sold,
(5-d) The payment amount of the buyer's device is the number of products sold + the first evaluation value,
(5-e) Information on the winner and the payment amount is transmitted to the seller device and the buyer device.

  The present invention also relates to an electronic bidding device for determining a successful bidder and a winning bid price of a product traded between a seller device and a buyer device via a communication network. When receiving bid information including each information of transaction success and transaction failure from the buyer device with respect to transmission of product means and transmission of product data, calculating an expected evaluation value based on the probability of transaction success and transaction failure, After calculating the expected evaluation value, a dividing means for randomly dividing the buyer device into a speculative frame and a fixed frame, a speculative frame list in which the buyer devices are arranged in descending order of the expected evaluation value with respect to the speculative frame, and a provisional Speculation frame list generation means that makes the payment amount the expected evaluation value of the buyer device corresponding to the number of seller devices selling the product +1 and the buyer device with the largest expected evaluation value wins And information on the winner and the provisional payment amount are transmitted to the seller device and the buyer device, the transaction means for causing the seller device and the buyer device to trade the product, and the number of the seller devices are reduced by one, Information indicating whether or not the transaction has been completed between the buyer's device and the seller's device, and in the case of the transaction being completed, the buyer's device is classified as traded and information representing the transaction success as reputation information of the seller's device On the other hand, if the transaction is not completed, information indicating transaction failure is set as the reputation information of the seller device, and the provisional payment amount of the buyer device is set to the number of seller devices selling the product + the buyer device corresponding to the first Expected value updating means for updating to the expected evaluation value, and control means for controlling the processing of the transaction means and the expected value updating means to be continued sequentially until the number of seller devices becomes zero.

  In this case, after the control of the control means is completed, if the seller device that has completed the transaction in the speculation frame sells the second and subsequent products that are the same as the transaction product in the speculation frame, And generating means for generating a definite frame list for arranging the buyer devices in descending order of expected evaluation values with respect to the deterministic frame, and a buyer device from the top to the number of items sold in the buyer device assigned to the definite frame And a means for sending the payment amount of the buyer device to the evaluation value of the buyer device corresponding to the number of merchandise sold + 1 and transmitting information of the winner and the payment amount to the seller device and the buyer device. It is.

  Further, when the provisional payment amount is paid from the buyer device to the seller device when the transaction is not completed at the time of the transaction in the speculation frame, the control unit controls the transaction unit, and the buyer device is next to the seller device. To the seller device in which the transaction is made, the difference between the expected evaluation value updated by the expected value updating means and the provisional payment amount is paid from the buyer device.

  In addition, the present invention provides a first step of transmitting product data to the buyer device upon receipt of product data from the seller device, and bid information including information on successful transaction and failed transaction from the buyer device for transmission of the product data. , A second step of calculating an expected evaluation value based on the probability of transaction success and transaction failure and, after calculating the expected evaluation value, randomly dividing the buyer device into a speculative frame and a fixed frame; A speculative frame list in which the buyer devices are arranged in descending order of the expected evaluation value with respect to, and the provisional payment amount of the buyer device is set as the expected evaluation value of the buyer device corresponding to the number of seller devices selling the product +1 Step, the buyer device having the largest expected evaluation value is the winner, the winner and the provisional payment information are transmitted to the seller device and the buyer device, and the seller device and the buyer device are transacted. And the number of seller devices is reduced by one, and information on whether or not the transaction has been completed with the seller device is received from the buyer device. If the transaction is completed, the buyer device has already been traded. Information indicating success of the transaction is set as the reputation information of the seller device, and if the transaction is incomplete, information indicating the transaction failure is set as the reputation information of the seller device and the provisional payment amount of the buyer device is set. The fifth step of updating the expected evaluation value of the buyer device corresponding to the number of seller devices selling the product + the first, and the processes of the fourth and fifth steps are sequentially continued until the number of seller devices becomes zero. And an electronic bidding method having a sixth step.

  In this case, after the processing of the sixth step is completed, if the seller device that has completed the transaction in the speculation frame sells the second and subsequent products that are the same as the transaction product in the speculation frame, The seventh step of calculating the sum and arranging the buyer devices in descending order of the expected evaluation value with respect to the fixed frame, and the buyer devices from the top to the number corresponding to the number of products sold among the buyer devices assigned to the fixed frame are the winners In addition, there is an eighth step in which the payment amount of the buyer device is set as the evaluation value of the buyer device corresponding to the number of products sold + 1 and the information on the winner and the payment amount is transmitted to the seller device and the buyer device.

Further, when the provisional payment is paid from the buyer device to the seller device when the transaction in the speculative frame is not completed, the buyer device to the seller device that performs the transaction with the buyer device next to the seller device The apparatus has a step of paying the difference between the expected evaluation value updated based on the process of the fifth step and the provisional payment amount from the apparatus.
Further, the present invention is a program for causing a computer to realize the functions shown in the above steps.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to prevent a malicious seller from performing fraudulent acts many times, and it is possible to assign a product to a buyer who has a high evaluation value for the product.

  As described above, according to the present invention, when determining the allocation of a product when selling the product via a network, it is possible to exclude a malicious seller from performing fraudulent acts many times and Product can be allocated to a buyer with a high evaluation value.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a system to which an electronic bidding apparatus of the present invention is applied. This system includes an organizer apparatus 1 and a plurality of seller apparatuses 3A, 3B, 3C, ... and a plurality of buyer devices 4A, 4B, 4C, ... are connected.
Here, the organizer apparatus 1 includes a seller management database 12A, a seller management database 12B, a bid management database 13A, a bid management database 13B, a control unit 11, a communication unit 18, and the like.

  The seller management database 12A stores information related to the seller device 3 and the sale item. As shown in FIG. 2, each record is composed of a seller device ID, a sales product ID, a sales quantity, and reputation information.

  The seller management database 12B is created by the seller management database 12A when bidding is started. The seller device ID for selling a certain product is searched in the seller management database 12A, and the obtained records are stored in the seller management database 12B as shown in FIG. .

  The bid management database 13A stores bid information transmitted from the buyer device 4 for each product. As shown in FIG. 4, each record is composed of a set of a buyer device ID and an evaluation value for a product.

  The bid management database 13B is created by the bid management database 13A when the method of the present invention is executed to determine the winning bidder and the winning bid price. The bid management database 13B includes a speculative frame list as shown in FIG. 5 and a confirmed frame list as shown in FIG. 6 for each product.

  The seller registration means 14 constituting the organizer apparatus 1 registers the product information transmitted from the seller apparatus 3 in the seller management database 12A via the control means 11. Further, the bid registration means 15 constituting the organizer apparatus 1 registers the bid information transmitted from the buyer apparatus 4 in the seller management database 12A via the control means 11. Moreover, the reputation registration means 16 which comprises the sponsor apparatus 1 registers the reputation information of the seller apparatus 3 transmitted from the buyer apparatus 4 in seller management database 12A, 12B via the control means 11. FIG. The winning bidder / successful bid price determining means 17 constituting the organizer apparatus 1 determines the winning bidder and the winning bid price by a method described later (a method after the allocation / successful bid price determining method described later). The control means 11 performs overall control of the organizer device 1. The communication means 18 transmits and receives information between the organizer device 1, the seller device 3, and the buyer device 4.

  The hardware configuration of the organizer apparatus 1 includes a CPU 101, a memory 102, an I / O 103, 104, and a recording medium 105 as shown in FIG. 7, and the seller management database 12A described above is stored in the memory 102. , 12B and bid management databases 13A, 13B are provided, and the CPU 101 reads out and executes the program recorded in the recording medium 105, whereby the control means 11, seller registration means 14, bid registration means 15 described above are executed. , Reputation registration means 16, successful bidder / successful bid price determination means 17 and communication means.

(Presentation of model)
Here, a calculation model is presented so that formal discussion is possible. It is assumed that there are m seller devices 3 and n buyer devices 4 in the trading field. Each seller device 3 sells one or more identical products. The reservation price (minimum selling price) for the merchandise of the seller device 3 is ε yen (ε is a minute value: this means that if the bid price is low, it is sold if the buyer attaches it).

  The seller device 3 is classified into two types: excellent and malicious. Good is a seller device that always completes the transaction, and malicious is a seller device that abandons the transaction halfway. The utility of the good seller device 3 is defined by the payment amount from the buyer device 4.

It is assumed that the buyer device 4 needs one commodity. The buyer device 4i has two evaluation values for the product. The evaluation value vi ^S when the transaction is completed and the evaluation value vi ^F when the transaction is not completed. The former is the value that the buyer apparatus 4i has for the purchased product itself. The latter represents the loss (negative value) incurred due to transaction failure. Even if the buyer apparatus 4i purchases a product from any seller apparatus 3, if the seller apparatus is excellent, the evaluation value vi ^S is the same. Further, no matter which seller device 3 is purchased, if the seller device is malicious, the evaluation value vi ^F is the same.

The utility ui of the buyer apparatus 4i is defined by ui = vi ^S -payment or ui = vi ^F -payment. Here, payment is the payment amount of the buyer apparatus 4i. The purpose of buyer device 4i is to maximize this utility. Note that if the buyer apparatus 4i fails to make a successful bid for any product, its utility is zero.

  If the seller device 3 has no past transaction history, the organizer device 1 cannot determine whether the seller device 3 is excellent or malicious. However, it is assumed that for a set of newly-entered seller devices 3, the ratio p between good and bad is known. That is, it is assumed that what percentage is excellent can be calculated from the entire past transaction history.

Next, the desired properties regarding the winning bidder and the method of determining the winning bid will be described. These are three: personal rationality, Pareto efficiency, and incentive compatibility.
The personal rationality is a property that the seller device 3 and the buyer device 4 do not lose by participating in the transaction. In the present invention, since it is assumed that there is a malicious seller device 3, this means that there is no loss in terms of expected values. If this property is not satisfied, the excellent seller device 3 and buyer device 4 will not participate in the transaction.

  Pareto efficiency indicates the optimality of product allocation, and when this is satisfied, it is a desirable state in which the product is allocated to the buyer device 4 that highly evaluates the product. Specifically, it is judged by whether or not the social utility is maximized. The social utility is defined as the sum of the utility of the good seller device 3 and the utility of the buyer device 4.

  When the incentive compatibility is satisfied, it is best for the buyer device 4 to bid for the true evaluation value. This means that it is not necessary for the buyer device 4 to scout the evaluation values of the other buyer devices 4, which helps to stabilize the entire system.

(Assignment / Bid price determination method)
The operation of the organizer apparatus when performing this allocation / successful bid price determination method will be described below.
(1) The organizer device 1 collects product data from the seller device 3 via the communication network 2 and registers it in the seller management database 12A.
(2) Search seller device 3 which sells a certain product from seller management database 12A, and store it in seller management database 12B. At this time, the seller devices 3 are arranged in descending order of the number sold. The seller device 3 is referred to as s1, s2,. For each seller device 3, the first product is referred to as a speculation frame, and the second and subsequent products are referred to as a confirmation frame.

(3) The organizer device 1 transmits product data to the buyer device 4.
(4) The organizer device 1 receives the bid information (product ID, vi ^S , vi ^F ) transmitted from the buyer device 4 and stores it in the bid management database 13A.
(5) An expected evaluation value based on the probability of transaction success and transaction failure is calculated as follows, and the corresponding part of the bid management database 13A is updated.
pvi ^S + (1-p) vi ^F

(6) The organizer device 1 randomly divides the buyer device 4 for which a bid has been made into a speculative frame and a fixed frame, and registers them in the speculative frame buyer device list and the fixed frame buyer device list in the bid management database 13B, respectively.

(7) The organizer apparatus 1 executes the following procedure with respect to the speculation frame.
(7-a) Arrange in descending order of expected evaluation values.
(7-b) The provisional payment amount of the buyer device 4 is set to the number of seller devices selling the product plus the first expected evaluation value. That is, for example, in FIG. 3, the number of seller devices 3 is 3D and 3E in descending order of sales number, and the number of buyer devices 4 is one more than this number, and the expected evaluation value is high as shown in FIG. If there are three units 4B, 4A, and 4C in this order, the seller device 3D and the seller device 3E are respectively traded with the buyer device 4B and the buyer device 4A. At this time, there is one more than the seller device. The expected evaluation value “10” of the buyer device 4C corresponding to the buyer device is set as the provisional payment amount of the buyer device 4.
(7-c) The buyer device 4 having the largest expected evaluation value is the winner, and information on the winner and the provisional payment amount is transmitted to the seller device 3 and the buyer device 4, and merchandise transactions between the devices 3 and 4. To do.

(7-d) Here, the number of seller devices is reduced by 1, and only the seller device 3E is used in the above example.
(7-e) The organizer device 1 receives from the buyer device 4 information indicating whether the transaction with the seller device 3 has been completed or whether the transaction has not been completed (that is, in the above example, 1 The second transaction is a transaction between the seller device 3D and the buyer device 4B. When this transaction is completed, the second transaction is a transaction between the seller device 3E and the buyer device 4A, while the first transaction (seller If the transaction between the device 3D and the buyer device 4B) is not completed, the second transaction is a transaction between the seller device 3E and the buyer device 4B, and the organizer device receives the completion of these transactions).

(7-f) When the transaction is completed, a check is made in the transaction completed column of the buyer device in the speculative frame buyer device list. Further, the character string OK is stored in the reputation column of the seller device in the seller management databases 12A and 12B.

(7-g) If the transaction has not been completed, the provisional payment amount of the buyer device 4 is updated to the number of seller devices selling the product + the first expected evaluation value (for example, the seller device 3D and the buyer device indicating the first transaction) When the transaction between 4B is incomplete, the expected evaluation value “25” of the buyer apparatus 4A is updated in the example of FIG. 4). Here, since the provisional payment amount (that is, the above-described expected evaluation value “10”) has already been paid to the seller device 3 at the time of the transaction, the difference is paid from the buyer device 4 to the seller device 3. That is, when the transaction between the seller device 3D indicating the first transaction and the buyer device 4B is incomplete, the buyer device 4B will make a transaction with the next seller device 3E, but the provisional payment has already been made to the seller. Since the payment is made to the device 3D side, the buyer device 4B pays the difference amount (that is, the expected evaluation value “25” − “10”) to the seller device 3E when a transaction is performed with the next seller device 3E. When such a transaction is not completed, the character string NG is stored in the reputation column of the seller device 3 in the seller management database 12A, 12B.

(7-h) If the number of seller devices becomes 0, go to step (8), otherwise return to step (7-c). Here, when the transaction between the seller device 3D indicating the first transaction and the buyer device 4B is completed, the transaction between the seller device 3E and the buyer device 4A is performed after step (7-c). When the transaction between the device 3D and the buyer device 4B is not completed, the transaction is performed between the seller device 3E and the buyer device 4B. Then, the above-described difference (expected evaluation value “25” − “10”) is paid from the buyer device 4B to the seller device 3E during the transaction between the seller device 3E and the buyer device 4B.

(8) The organizer device 1 is the same for the second and subsequent seller devices 3 (the seller device 3 in which OK is stored in the reputation column of the seller management database 12B) that has completed the transaction in the speculation frame. If you are selling a product, perform the following procedure:

(8-a) The sum total of the number of products sold after the second item is calculated.
(8-b) The buyer devices 4 assigned to the confirmation frame are arranged so that the evaluation values are in descending order.
(8-c) Out of the buyer devices 4 assigned to the fixed frame, the highest number of items sold from the top is the winner.
(8-d) The payment amount of the buyer's device 4 is set as the product sales quantity + 1st evaluation value. That is, the buyer devices 4A to 4E shown in FIG. 4 are arranged in the descending order of the expected evaluation value 4B, 4A, 4C, 4D, 4E. Is the expected evaluation value “5” of the buyer apparatus 4E.
(8-e) Information on the winner and the payment amount is transmitted to the seller device 3 and the buyer device 4.

  In addition, regarding the method of dividing the buyer device 4 into a speculative frame and a fixed frame in step (6), a restriction is set such that the number of buyer devices allocated to the speculative frame is equal to or more than the number of seller devices + 1. Any division method may be used as long as this restriction is satisfied.

(Characteristics of the method of the present invention regarding allocation / successful bid price determination)
In the present invention, the following properties are guaranteed.

Proposition 1
It is best for each buyer device 4 to send a true evaluation value to the organizer device 1.
Proof First, since the allocation to the speculative frame and the fixed frame is performed at random, the buyer apparatus 4 cannot operate which frame the product is purchased from. Considering the case where it is allocated to the speculative frame, the payment amount is determined by the transmission value of the other buyer device 4 (expected evaluation value of the other buyer device), so it is not possible to reduce the payment amount by underdeclaring it. . In addition, if the winner is not a winner when transmitting a true evaluation value, and if an overvalue is transmitted to become a winner, the payment amount is larger than the true expected evaluation value. At this time, the expected utility is a negative value. In other words, you lose by trading. Therefore, even if a false evaluation value is transmitted, the expected utility of the buyer apparatus 4 does not increase. With respect to the buyer device 4 in the definite frame, the same argument holds regarding the payment amount, and the expected utility of the buyer device 4 does not increase even if a false evaluation value is transmitted.

Proposition 2
It is best for each buyer device 4 to send true reputation information to the organizer device 1.
Proof The buyer device 4 that has traded in the speculative frame checks whether or not the information on transaction completion and transaction incomplete is properly transmitted to the organizer device 1. If the seller device 3 is a malicious seller device, if the buyer device 4 falsely transmits information indicating the completion of the transaction to the organizer device 1, the opportunity for subsequent transactions is lost. Therefore, when the transaction has not been completed, it is best for the buyer device 4 to transmit information to the organizer device 1 that the transaction has not been completed. On the other hand, if the buyer's device 4 falsely sends information indicating that the transaction has not been completed to the organizer device 1 despite the completion of the transaction, the payment amount is updated to a larger value. Invite. Therefore, when the transaction is completed, it is best for the buyer device 4 to transmit information to the organizer device 1 when the transaction is completed.

(Evaluation)
The following two computer experiments were conducted in order to examine how efficient allocation can be realized by using the method of the present invention.
Experiment 1: Comparison between the method of the present invention and a simple allocation method regarding social utility Experiment 2: An error is included in the distribution probability p of the excellent seller device 3 and the malicious seller device 3 possessed by the organizer device 1 Case impact assessment

  Here, the social utility value obtained when the organizer device 1 knows the property (good or bad) of the seller device 3 is used as a reference value, and what percentage of the social utility is obtained by each method. Evaluate the performance by obtaining it. Actually, it is impossible for the organizer device 1 to determine the property of the seller device 3 in advance, but the value of the social utility when the organizer device 1 knows the property of the seller device 3 is determined. It is used only as a theoretical limit value.

First, Table 1 shows an example of the evaluation value of the buyer device 4, and Table 2 shows examples of the properties of the seller device 3 and the number of products sold. The optimal allocation when the organizer device 1 knows the properties of all the seller devices 3. think of. Since s2 is a malicious seller device 3, the organizer device 1 should not assign the sale product of s2 to the buyer device 4. Therefore, the highest social utility is achieved by assigning the four products sold by s1 and s3 to the buyer device 4 in the descending order of the evaluation value vi ^S , and the social utility at that time is 108.

  Hereinafter, when conducting a computer experiment, the performance of the organizer device 1 is the ratio of the social utility obtained by the method of the present invention to the social utility of the optimal assignment when the organizer device 1 knows the nature of all sellers. Evaluate.

(Comparison method)
In Experiment 1, the method of the present invention is compared with the comparison method. In the comparison method used for the comparison, the organizer apparatus 1 regards the properties of all the seller apparatuses 3 as excellent, and assigns products to the buyer apparatuses 4 in descending order of the evaluation value vi ^S. The reputation of whether or not the transaction has been completed is not shared between the organizer device 1 and the buyer device 4. As before, using the examples in Tables 1 and 2 reduces the social utility of the control method from 108 to 83. In contrast, in the method of the present invention, how much social utility is achieved is evaluated by computer experiments.

  Experiment 2 considers the impact when the organizer device 1 does not have the correct information regarding the ratio p of the good and malicious seller device 3. The influence of the case where the organizer apparatus 1 estimates the ratio p larger than the actual value and the smaller ratio p is shown. When the correct ratio p cannot be obtained, the buyer device 4 assigned to the speculation frame is disadvantageous, but the purpose is to evaluate the influence. It is assumed that the organizer device 1 and the buyer device 4 know the value of the same ratio p as shared knowledge, although it is not accurate.

(Experimental settings)
The setting of the computer experiment is described below. There are twelve buyer devices 4, three seller devices 3, and one organizer device 1 in the auction. Each buyer device 4 requires only one product as one product, and the evaluation value vi ^S is [1, 50] and the evaluation value vi ^F is [−50, −1] from a uniform distribution. Selected. The experiment is performed with the ratio of the excellent seller device 3 set to p = 1/3 or p = 2/3. The seller device 3 (s1) sells three items, the seller device 3 (s2) sells two items, and the seller device 3 (s3) sells one item. While exchanging the excellent seller device 3, 100 auctions are performed with each setting, and the average value of social utility is compared.

(Experimental result 1)
Table 3 shows the ratio of the social utility obtained by the proposed method and the comparative method to the theoretical limit value. The overall result shows that the proposed method is superior to the comparative method. In particular, as the number of products sold from the excellent seller device 3 decreases, the difference from the comparison method increases. For example, if the seller device s1 (sold three) and the seller device s3 (sold one) are the excellent seller device 3, the difference is 15.4 points, whereas the seller device s2 (sold two) seller device s3 Is a good seller device 3, the difference is 63.9 points. This is due to the property that the proposed method can eliminate the seller device 3 that should avoid transactions. Similar results were obtained when p = 1/3, and it was confirmed that the proposed method could be assigned more efficiently than the comparison method.

(Experimental result 2)
Table 4 shows the ratio of the social utility of the proposed method to the theoretical limit value when there is an estimation error in the distribution ratio of the good seller apparatus 3 that the organizer apparatus 1 can know. Here, when the true value is p = 2/3, when the organizer apparatus 1 uses information that p = 5/6 or p = 1/3, when the true value is p = 2/3 A result in the case of using information of p = 5/6 or p = 1/3 is shown. The proposed method generally shows a high rate of social utility regardless of the error of p, indicating that efficient allocation is realized.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the system to which this invention is applied. It is a figure which shows the example of a record format of seller management database 12A. It is a figure which shows the example of a record format regarding a certain goods of seller management database 12B. It is a figure which shows the example of a record format regarding a certain goods of the bid management database 13A. It is a figure which shows the example of a record format of the speculation frame list with respect to a certain goods of the bid management database 13B. It is a figure which shows the example of a record format of the fixed frame list with respect to a certain goods of the bid management database 13B. It is a block diagram which shows the hardware constitutions of the organizer apparatus which comprises the said system.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Organizer apparatus, 2 ... Communication network, 3, 3A, 3B, 3C ... Seller apparatus, 4, 4A, 4B, 4C ... Buyer apparatus, 11 ... Control means, 12A, 12B ... Seller management database, 13A, 13B ... Bid management database, 14 ... seller registration means, 15 ... bid registration means, 16 ... reputation registration means, 17 ... successful bidder / successful bid price determination means, 18 ... communication means, 101 ... CPU, 102 ... memory, 103, 104 ... I / O, 105... Recording medium.

Claims (9)

In an electronic bidding apparatus for determining a successful bidder and a successful bid price of a product traded between a seller apparatus and a buyer apparatus via a communication network,
A transmission means for transmitting the product data to the buyer device via the communication network upon receiving the product data from the seller device via the communication network;
Upon receiving bid information including each information of transaction success and transaction failure from the buyer device in response to the transmission of the product data of the transmission means, an expected evaluation value based on the probability of the transaction success and transaction failure is calculated, and this expected evaluation A dividing means for randomly dividing the buyer device into a speculative frame and a fixed frame after calculating the value;
An expected evaluation value of a buyer device corresponding to the number of seller devices selling the product plus a provisional payment amount of the buyer device is generated for a speculative frame list in which buyer devices are arranged in descending order of the expected evaluation value with respect to the speculative frame, and Speculation frame list generating means for
A transaction means that takes the buyer device having the largest expected evaluation value as a winner, transmits information of the winner and the provisional payment amount to the seller device and the buyer device, and causes the seller device and the buyer device to perform a product transaction;
Decrease the number of seller devices by 1 and receive information from the buyer device whether or not the transaction has been completed with the seller device. If the transaction is completed, classify the buyer device as traded and While information indicating success of the transaction is set as the reputation information of the seller device, if the transaction is not completed, information indicating unsuccessful transaction is set as the reputation information of the seller device, and the provisional payment amount of the buyer device is set as the product Expected value update means for updating the expected evaluation value of the buyer device corresponding to the number of seller devices selling +1
An electronic bidding apparatus comprising: control means for controlling the transaction means and the expected value updating means so as to continue sequentially until the number of seller devices becomes zero. In claim 1,
After the control of the control means is completed, if the seller device that has completed the transaction in the speculation frame sells the second and subsequent products that are the same as the transaction product in the speculation frame, the sum of the number of products sold is calculated. And generating means for generating a definite frame list for arranging buyer devices in descending order of expected evaluation values with respect to the definite frame,
Among the buyer devices assigned to the fixed frame, the buyer device from the top to the product sales number is the winner, and the buyer's payment amount is the evaluation value of the buyer device corresponding to the product sales number + 1, and An electronic bidding apparatus comprising: information on a winner and a payment amount, and means for transmitting the information to the seller apparatus and the buyer apparatus. In claim 1,
If the transaction is not completed at the time of transaction in the speculation frame, the provisional payment amount is paid from the buyer device to the seller device,
The control means controls the transaction means, and with respect to a seller apparatus that performs a transaction with the buyer apparatus next to the seller apparatus, an expected evaluation value updated by the expected value update means from the buyer apparatus; An electronic bidding apparatus characterized in that a difference between the provisional payment amounts is paid. In an electronic bidding method for determining a successful bidder and a successful bid price of a product traded between a seller device and a buyer device via a communication network,
A first step of receiving product data from the seller device and transmitting the product data to the buyer device;
Upon receiving bid information including information on transaction success and transaction failure from the buyer device in response to the transmission of the product data, an expected evaluation value based on the probability of the transaction success and transaction failure is calculated, and the calculation of the expected evaluation value A second step of randomly dividing the buyer device into a speculative frame and a fixed frame;
A speculation frame list for arranging the buyer devices in descending order of the expected evaluation value for the speculation frame is generated, and the provisional payment amount of the buyer device is set as the expected evaluation value of the buyer device corresponding to the number of seller devices selling the product + 1. A third step;
A fourth step in which the buyer device having the largest expected evaluation value is the winner, the winner and the provisional payment information are transmitted to the seller device and the buyer device, and the seller device and the buyer device are transacted with each other;
Reduce the number of seller devices by one, receive information from the buyer device whether the transaction has been completed with the seller device, and classify the buyer device as traded if the transaction is completed; While information indicating success of the transaction is set as the reputation information of the seller device, if the transaction is not completed, information indicating unsuccessful transaction is set as the reputation information of the seller device and the provisional payment amount of the buyer device is A fifth step of updating the expected evaluation value of the buyer device corresponding to the number of seller devices selling the product + 1st;
An electronic bidding method comprising: a sixth step of sequentially continuing the processes of the fourth and fifth steps until the number of seller devices becomes zero. In claim 4,
After the processing of the sixth step, if the seller device that completed the transaction in the speculation frame sells the second and subsequent products that are the same as the transaction product in the speculation frame, calculate the sum of the number of products sold And a seventh step of arranging the buyer devices in descending order of the expected evaluation value with respect to the fixed frame,
Among the buyer devices assigned to the confirmation frame, the buyer device from the top to the product sales number is the winner, the purchase amount of the buyer device is the evaluation value of the buyer device corresponding to the product sales number + 1, and the winner And an eighth step of transmitting the payment amount information to the seller device and the buyer device. In claim 4,
If the transaction is not completed at the time of transaction in the speculation frame, the provisional payment amount is paid from the buyer device to the seller device,
The process in the sixth step is for the seller apparatus that performs a transaction with the buyer apparatus next to the seller apparatus, and the expected evaluation value updated based on the process in the fifth step from the buyer apparatus and the seller apparatus. An electronic bidding method comprising a step of paying out a difference between provisional payment amounts.   When receiving the product data from the seller device, the first function of transmitting the product data to the buyer device, and receiving the bid information including information of transaction success and transaction failure from the buyer device for the transmission of the product data, A second function of calculating an expected evaluation value based on the probability of successful transaction and a failure of the transaction and, after calculating the expected evaluation value, randomly dividing the buyer device into a speculative frame and a fixed frame, and an expected evaluation regarding the speculative frame A third function that generates a speculation frame list in which buyer devices are arranged in descending order of values, and sets the provisional payment amount of the buyer device as the expected evaluation value of the buyer device corresponding to the number of seller devices that sell the product + 1. A fourth function which makes the buyer device having the highest expected evaluation value a winner, transmits information of the winner and the provisional payment amount to the seller device and the buyer device, and causes the seller device and the buyer device to make a transaction; Information on whether or not the transaction has been completed with the seller device from the buyer device, and if the transaction is completed, classify the buyer device as traded and While information indicating success of the transaction is set as the reputation information of the seller device, if the transaction is not completed, information indicating unsuccessful transaction is set as the reputation information of the seller device, and the provisional payment amount of the buyer device is set as the product The fifth function of updating the expected evaluation value of the buyer device corresponding to the number of seller devices that sells +1 and the fourth and fifth functions are sequentially continued until the number of seller devices becomes zero. A program that allows a computer to realize its functions. In claim 7,
After the end of the sixth function, if the seller device that has completed the transaction in the speculation frame sells the second and subsequent products that are the same as the transaction product in the speculation frame, the sum of the product sales is calculated. And a seventh function for arranging buyer devices in descending order of expected evaluation values with respect to the fixed frame,
Among the buyer devices assigned to the confirmation frame, the buyer device from the top to the product sales number is the winner, the purchase amount of the buyer device is the evaluation value of the buyer device corresponding to the product sales number + 1, and the winner And an eighth function for transmitting information on the payment amount to the seller device and the buyer device. In claim 7,
When the provisional payment amount is paid from the buyer device to the seller device when the transaction in the speculation frame is not completed, the buyer device is in charge of the seller device that performs the transaction with the buyer device next to the seller device. A program for causing a computer to realize a function of paying the difference between the expected evaluation value updated based on the fifth function and the provisional payment amount from the apparatus.

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