JP2006259983A - Affiliate program execution apparatus, computer program, and program storage medium - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an affiliate program execution apparatus adapted for a cellphone with a browser. <P>SOLUTION: The affiliate program execution apparatus includes a means for acquiring the contractor ID of an accessing cellphone; a means for registering the contractor ID of the cellphone and the contractor's personal information in a member database; a means for storing the URL of a commercial site and points that match the kind of transaction in a merchant database in association for management; a means for storing the contractor ID and the commercial site in a link instruction database in association when a link to the commercial site is directed via a Web page sent to a member's cellphone; a means for storing in a result database a report on the completion of a transaction sent from either the cellphone or the commercial site; and a means for recording in a point database the points appropriate for the contractor ID in association according to the information stored in the result database and the merchant database. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a computer system that implements an affiliate program.

  The affiliate program is a success-reward-type advertisement distribution method in which an advertisement fee is paid to an affiliate only when a user generates a certain transaction (purchasing a product, filling in a questionnaire, registering a member, etc.) with a browser. According to the affiliate program, an advertiser can pay an advertising fee after obtaining a certain result (occurrence of a transaction) without taking any risk when placing an advertisement.

  As a specific implementation procedure of the affiliate program, first, a user's browser accesses a website (merchant site) that publishes a web page as an advertising medium, and an advertiser set in this merchant site Instruct the link to the site (merchant site) and access the merchant site. When a user generates a transaction at the merchant site, a reward is paid to the affiliate according to the contents of the transaction.

  From the access to the merchant site to the occurrence of a transaction, there is no need to go through a series of continuous internet surfing, and the session is terminated once or a transaction is generated directly at the merchant site without going through the merchant site later. In many cases, a contract is made to pay the affiliate a success fee based on the affiliate program if it can be confirmed that it has been accessed via the merchant site before (for example, within one month).

  Recently, there are also affiliate programs that can provide point services to users who have generated transactions. Specifically, the browser that has accessed the advertiser site via a certain merchant site is identified and managed, and points are given to the user who generated the transaction. For example, the points are converted into cash as cash back and transferred to the user's designated account, or exchanged for prizes and sent to the user.

  In order to implement the affiliate program, the merchant site viewed by the user is identified as the origin of the transaction, and the general user's browser will eventually be involved in the event (product purchase instruction, questionnaire entry, member registration instruction, etc.) A computer system or a program that executes a process of tracking (tracking) an information distribution route until the occurrence of a) is a well-known tracking system.

  As is well known, the HTTP communication between the browser and the WWW server is completed with a set of requests and responses. Therefore, in the case of a browser of a personal computer (PC), a series of sessions such as browser web page transition in the accessed web site is managed by a well-known cookie. Further, when moving from the merchant site to the merchant site, a known tracking URL is used to indicate to the linked merchant site which link source merchant site and which link instruction has been issued. Notify. As a result, in the merchant site, if any transaction is generated by the browser that has been accessed, it is possible to identify the affiliate that is the payee of the success fee based on the affiliate program.

Affiliate programs and tracking technologies are described in the following patent documents.
JP 2001-117847 A JP 2002-117318 A JP 2002-157494 A

  Now that mobile phones (browser phones) equipped with browsers have become widespread, there are many merchant sites for browser phone users. Therefore, the advent of affiliate programs for browser phones has been demanded. However, since the browser phone has technical specifications and usage forms that are very different from those of a PC, it is extremely difficult to realize an affiliate program.

  First, because of the specifications of the browser phone, session management by Cookie is not possible. Certainly, browser phones send their own terminal identifiers when accessing the WWW server on the Internet. However, browser phones that frequently change their models can access and access merchant sites. Unless the originating transaction takes place within some close time, there is no certainty that the merchant site access and the transaction are from the same user.

  In many cases, electronic commerce (mobile commerce) for browser phones is a website for browser phones of a predetermined mobile communication carrier (carrier) carrier called an official site. The official website is a website housed on a WWW server directly connected to the mobile communications network. Mobile merchants operating merchant sites that belong to the official website act on behalf of mobile communications providers to collect charges related to mobile commerce. You can do it. That is, the user of the browser phone is charged from the carrier by adding the fee related to his / her electronic commerce to the communication fee of the browser phone, and the carrier pays the electronic commerce cost equivalent from the communication fee collected from the user to the merchant site Pay to the manager. Therefore, the user can pay the price safely and easily without using a payment method in other procedures that require disclosure of confidential information or troublesome procedures such as credit card payment or bank transfer. it can.

  However, as much of mobile commerce is done on official websites, it is unlikely that affiliates will be involved in the transaction. Affiliates are getting more ads and building business models based on affiliate programs by enriching their merchant sites. If the official site continues to win, the official site operator will neglect efforts to acquire users, and the content of websites targeting browser phones will naturally be unattractive to users. . Of course, the user cannot expect to enjoy additional services such as point services. With this, healthy development due to free competition between companies involved in mobile commerce cannot be expected, and a dramatic expansion of electronic commerce targeting browser phones cannot be expected.

  The present inventors considered the root of the above problem. Realizing an affiliate program for browser phones promotes healthy free competition between merchant sites for browser phones, and offers attractive services to users, and mobile commerce. I was convinced that it would lead to the development of the entire industry. Then, the inventors of the present invention have a contractor number (subscriber ID) by which a browser phone (for example, a mobile phone for au communication service of KDDI Corporation) subscribed to a specific carrier can identify a contractor, that is, the user itself. We paid attention to that we sent to WWW server on the Internet. An object of the present invention is to make it possible to execute an affiliate program even in mobile commerce by skillfully using a subscriber ID.

The present invention is an affiliate program execution device composed of a computer connected to the Internet,
A mobile phone that implements a browser and transmits a contractor ID for identifying a contractor when accessing a WWW server on the Internet via a mobile communication network is a communication target.
Means for obtaining a subscriber ID from the mobile phone that has been accessed;
When a member registration request including personal information is received from the accessed mobile phone, a member registration means for registering and managing a contractor ID of the mobile phone and the personal information in a member database;
Commercial site management means for associating a commercial site ID for identifying a commercial site with a commercial site URL and a point corresponding to the type of transaction, and storing and managing them in a merchant database for each of a large number of commercial sites;
When a web page in which a link for allowing access to a commercial site is delivered to a mobile phone that has been accessed and a link to an appropriate commercial site is instructed by the member's mobile phone, the mobile phone of the member Link instruction recording means for associating the contractor ID and the identifier of the designated commercial site in association with each other and storing them in the link instruction database;
When the mobile phone generates a transaction at the commercial site and receives a completion report about the transaction sent from the mobile phone or the commercial site, the contract and the contract of the commercial site included in the completion report are received. A transaction recording means for querying the link instruction database for the correspondence relationship with the contractor ID and storing the commercial site, the contractor ID, and the content of the transaction in the result database if the correspondence relationship exists;
A point management unit that inquires the merchant database of the commercial site associated with the contractor ID in the result database and the content of the transaction, associates the corresponding point with the contractor ID, and records it in the point database;
It has.

In addition, the present invention is connected to the Internet, has a WWW server function, implements a browser, and contracts for specifying a contractor when accessing a WWW server on the Internet via a mobile communication network. A computer program installed in a computer that communicates with a mobile phone that sends a user ID,
Receiving a member registration request from the mobile phone that has been accessed, obtaining a subscriber ID of the mobile phone, registering and managing personal information of the subscriber of the mobile phone in a member database; and
For each of a large number of commercial sites, associating a commercial site ID with a commercial site ID for identifying a commercial site with a point corresponding to the type of transaction, and storing and managing it in the merchant database;
Querying the member database for a contractor ID obtained from a mobile phone that has been accessed and authenticating the user of the mobile phone as a member;
When a web page with a link for accessing a commercial site is delivered to a member's mobile phone, and the link to the appropriate commercial site is instructed by the mobile phone, the contractor ID of the mobile phone Storing the instructed commercial site identifier in association with the link instruction database;
When the mobile phone generates a transaction at the commercial site and receives a completion report about the transaction sent from the mobile phone or the commercial site, the contract and the contract of the commercial site included in the completion report are received. Querying the link instruction database for the correspondence relationship with the contractor ID, and if the correspondence relationship exists, storing the commercial site, the contractor ID, and the transaction content in the result database;
Querying the merchant database for the commercial site associated with the contractor ID in the result database and the transaction content, associating the corresponding point with the contractor ID and recording it in the point database;
The present invention also extends to a computer program for executing the program and a program storage medium storing the computer program.

  According to the affiliate program execution device of the present invention, an affiliate program can be executed for a mobile phone equipped with a browser.

=== Outline of Affiliate Program ===
An affiliate program execution device (hereinafter referred to as an affiliate device) in an embodiment of the present invention provides a point service based on an affiliate program for a browser phone capable of sending a subscriber ID. Therefore, it is assumed that the affiliate device is a browser phone that can send a subscriber ID to a WWW server on the Internet as a communication target, and the merchant site notifies the affiliate device only about the transaction generated by the browser phone.

  When the browser phone that has been accessed accesses the merchant site from the web page published by the WWW server function of the affiliate device and generates some transaction on the merchant site, depending on the content of the transaction A point service is provided to give points to browser phone users. Then, the points given to the user are provided to the user after being returned to, for example, cash or a prize by the management operator (service provider) of the affiliate device.

=== Network configuration ===
As an embodiment of the present invention, a computer system that executes an affiliate program based on the implementation method of the present invention. FIG. 1 shows a network configuration including the affiliate apparatus of the present invention. The mobile communication network 50 and the Internet 40 are connected via a gateway 51, and the browser phone 20 can communicate with the Internet 40 via the gateway 51. Further, a WWW server (hereinafter referred to as a merchant site) 30 for publishing a merchant site is accommodated in the mobile communication network 50 as the Internet 40 or an official site of a carrier.

  The affiliate device 1 has a function as a WWW server, and a web page for a browser phone that lists a merchant site 30 that has a contract relationship with a service provider, or a web page for searching a merchant site by inputting a directory or a keyword. Is published. The merchant site in the contract relationship may be an “official site” of the carrier or a website on the Internet 40. In any case, a Web page (a window page) with a link for accessing the browser phone 20 to a merchant site having a contractual relationship may be disclosed.

  The member database (DB) 2 stores and manages member information in which a subscriber ID and personal information are associated with each other for a large number of members who will receive the point service. The merchant DB 3 identifies and manages a large number of merchant sites in a contract relationship with the merchant ID. For each merchant ID, the merchant site URL, operator, contact information for the operator, etc. correspond to the transaction contents. The point is associated and managed.

  The click DB 4 records a log of which member has accessed which merchant site from the contact page. The result DB 5 records information (transaction completion report) related to the transaction generated at the merchant site. In this embodiment, information that associates a merchant ID with a subscriber ID and the contents of a transaction is used as a transaction completion report. The point DB 6 stores information in which points are associated with member IDs as information related to the point service. The storage resources managed by the various DBs 2 to 6 may be in the same storage device or may be distributed. And the affiliate apparatus 1 of a present Example is implement | achieved by execution of the program installed in the computer provided with the WWW server function.

=== Get Subscriber ID ===
The affiliate device 1 acquires the subscriber ID of the browser phone 20 that has accessed. Specifically, when the browser phone 20 obtains a Web page, its own subscriber ID is included in the header portion of the HTTP request and sent to the affiliate device. The subscriber ID is specified and described by the environment variable “HTTP_X_UP_SUBNO” in the header information. The affiliate device 1 acquires the subscriber ID.

=== Member Registration (s10) ===
FIG. 2 shows an execution procedure of the affiliate program mainly including the affiliate device 1 by a communication procedure diagram among the affiliate device 1, the browser phone 20, and the merchant site 30. The affiliate device 1 prepares a Web page (member registration page) for accepting member registration, and a user who wants to enjoy the point service obtains the member registration page with his / her browser phone 20 (s11, s12). The member registration page includes a form for entering personal information (name, contact information, age, gender, etc.). When the browser phone 20 inputs necessary information into a predetermined form and gives an instruction to transmit it, the form data is sent to the affiliate device 1 together with the subscriber ID as an HTTP request (s13, s14). . The affiliate device 1 associates the form data from the browser phone 20 with the subscriber ID and stores them in the member DB 2 (s15). Note that the user's mail address can also be obtained by sending a blank text blank mail addressed to the affiliate device 1.

  The affiliate device 1 acquires the subscriber ID of the accessed browser phone 20, and if the ID is already registered in the member DB 2, recognizes the browser phone 20 as a member and returns the contact page.

=== Click Data Acquisition (s20) ===
The browser phone 20 that has undergone the authentication procedure using the subscriber ID obtains a contact page from the affiliate device 1 (s21, s22). A link for accessing the browser phone 20 to the merchant site 30 is set on the window page. Specifically, the link description portion to the merchant site 30 on the window page includes a URL for sending the merchant site identifier (merchant ID) to a predetermined CGI of the affiliate device 1. When a link to a certain merchant site 30 is instructed by the browser phone 20 that has ordered the page, a merchant ID is delivered to the CGI as the instruction information (s23). This CGI acquires the subscriber ID of the browser phone 20 that has accessed, and associates the subscriber ID with the merchant ID and records them in the click DB 3 as a log (s24). Further, based on the stored information in the merchant DB 3, an HTTP response including a URL for redirecting the browser phone to the merchant site specified by the acquired merchant ID is returned (s25). Thereby, the browser phone 20 obtains a predetermined web page of the merchant site 30 (s26, s27).
=== Transaction record (s30) ===
It is assumed that the browser phone 20 accesses the merchant site 30 by the redirect and generates some transaction in the site 30 (s31). The merchant site 30 sends, for example, a confirmation page for notifying that the questionnaire has been accepted or that the electronic commerce has been completed to the browser phone 20 that has generated the transaction (s32). When this confirmation page is delivered to the browser phone 20, transaction completion information including the subscriber ID of the browser phone 20 and the transaction content is delivered to the affiliate device 1.

  In this embodiment, a URL indicating that the merchant ID is sent as an argument to the affiliate device 1 is included as a link destination of an image inserted by a well-known “img” tag in the confirmation page, and the browser phone 20 confirms it. When the HTML describing the page is interpreted (s33) and the inserted image is embedded in the confirmation page, the affiliate device 1 is accessed, the merchant ID is sent (s34), and the inserted image is returned. The affiliate device 1 queries the click DB 4 for the merchant ID received from the browser phone 20 from which the image was ordered and the subscriber ID acquired by the access, and the correspondence between the merchant ID and the subscriber ID is displayed in the click DB 4. If there is, the transaction completion information is stored in the result DB 5 (s35). Then, the image data to be inserted into the confirmation page is returned to the browser phone (s36), and the browser phone displays the confirmation page including the image (s37). Of course, the merchant site 30 may acquire the subscriber ID and send the merchant ID and the acquired subscriber ID to the affiliate device 1 in parallel with the process of sending the confirmation page to the browser phone 20.

  Note that there is a possibility that when the browser phone 20 accesses the merchant site 30 via the window page, a transaction is not generated, and a transaction is generated by accessing the merchant site 30 without going through the window page at a later date. In this case, for example, the date and time when the click database was accessed to the merchant site via the contact page was compared with the date and time when the transaction completion information was received, and if the transaction was successful, the transaction was successful by the affiliate program. An expiration date may be set in the period from the first access to the merchant site to the transaction, such as recognition as a reward target. This time limit may be appropriately set based on a contract between the service provider and the merchant site operator.

  Further, when the browser phone 20 having the same subscriber ID generates a plurality of transactions at the same merchant site, the second and subsequent transactions are not subject to success fees, or the generation date and time of two consecutive transactions are predetermined. If it is within this time, the second transaction can be set as appropriate, such as not subject to success fee. These settings may be described in the merchant DB 3, and it is not necessary to record the completion information of the transaction not subject to the success fee in the result DB 5.

=== Point Registration (s40) ===
The affiliate device 1 periodically searches the result DB and examines the content of the transaction completion information. Then, in accordance with the merchant ID and the transaction content, the manager of the merchant site 30 is transferred to the subsequent work such as charging a success fee based on the affiliate program. Further, the member identified based on the subscriber ID is associated with a point corresponding to the transaction content based on the stored information of the merchant DB 3 and stored in the point DB 6 (s41). Based on the stored information in the point DB 6, the points are returned to the corresponding member in an appropriate manner at an appropriate time.

=== Business model ===
According to the affiliate device 1 of the present invention, it is possible to develop a success-reward-type advertising insertion business in an affiliate program for browser phones that could not be tracked conventionally. In addition, if the merchant site 30 of the official site can be accessed via the contact page, the user can safely and easily carry out the procedures after the transaction on the official site, as well as point services that could not be expected in the past. You can enjoy additional services. In addition, the merchant site 30 also increases the possibility that the user can access his / her browser phone 20 via the affiliate device 1 for the purpose of the point service without investing in facilities related to the point service. Many transactions can be expected.

It is a network block diagram including the affiliate program execution apparatus in the Example of this invention. It is a flowchart of the process regarding the affiliate program implemented mainly by the said affiliate program execution apparatus.

Explanation of symbols

1 Affiliate program execution device 2 Member database 3 Merchant database 4 Click database 5 Results database 6 Point database 20 Browser phone 30 WWW server (merchant site)
40 Internet 50 Mobile communication network

Claims (3)

An affiliate program execution device composed of a computer connected to the Internet,
A mobile phone that implements a browser and transmits a contractor ID for identifying a contractor when accessing a WWW server on the Internet via a mobile communication network is a communication target.
Means for obtaining a subscriber ID from the mobile phone that has been accessed;
When a member registration request including personal information is received from the accessed mobile phone, a member registration means for registering and managing a contractor ID of the mobile phone and the personal information in a member database;
Commercial site management means for associating a commercial site ID for identifying a commercial site with a commercial site URL and a point corresponding to the type of transaction, and storing and managing them in a merchant database for each of a large number of commercial sites;
When a web page in which a link for allowing access to a commercial site is delivered to a mobile phone that has been accessed and a link to an appropriate commercial site is instructed by the member's mobile phone, the mobile phone of the member Link instruction recording means for associating the contractor ID and the identifier of the designated commercial site in association with each other and storing them in the link instruction database;
When the mobile phone generates a transaction at the commercial site and receives a completion report about the transaction sent from the mobile phone or the commercial site, the contract and the contract of the commercial site included in the completion report are received. A transaction recording means for querying the link instruction database for the correspondence relationship with the contractor ID and storing the commercial site, the contractor ID, and the content of the transaction in the result database if the correspondence relationship exists;
A point management unit that inquires the merchant database of the commercial site associated with the contractor ID in the result database and the content of the transaction, associates the corresponding point with the contractor ID, and records it in the point database;
Affiliate program execution device with It is connected to the Internet, has a WWW server function, implements a browser, and sends a contractor ID for identifying a contractor when accessing a WWW server on the Internet via a mobile communication network. A computer program installed on a computer that communicates with a mobile phone,
Receiving a member registration request from the mobile phone that has been accessed, obtaining a subscriber ID of the mobile phone, registering and managing personal information of the subscriber of the mobile phone in a member database; and
For each of a large number of commercial sites, associating a commercial site ID with a commercial site ID for identifying a commercial site with a point corresponding to the type of transaction, and storing and managing it in the merchant database;
Querying the member database for a contractor ID obtained from a mobile phone that has been accessed and authenticating the user of the mobile phone as a member;
When a web page with a link for accessing a commercial site is delivered to a member's mobile phone, and the link to the appropriate commercial site is instructed by the mobile phone, the contractor ID of the mobile phone Storing the instructed commercial site identifier in association with the link instruction database;
When the mobile phone generates a transaction at the commercial site and receives a completion report about the transaction sent from the mobile phone or the commercial site, the contract and the contract of the commercial site included in the completion report are received. Querying the link instruction database for the correspondence relationship with the contractor ID, and if the correspondence relationship exists, storing the commercial site, the contractor ID, and the transaction content in the result database;
Querying the merchant database for the commercial site associated with the contractor ID in the result database and the transaction content, associating the corresponding point with the contractor ID and recording it in the point database;
A computer program that executes A program storage medium recording the computer program according to claim 2.

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