JP6356738B2 - Providing device, providing method, and providing program - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a providing apparatus, a providing method, and a providing program.

  In recent years, with the rapid spread of the Internet, information on stock investment has been actively provided via the network. Generally, information obtained by users who make stock investments includes advice from experts, prediction information, finance news, and the like.

  In addition, as an example of providing information on stock investment as described above, when searching for stocks by specifying conditions, the stocks browsed before and after the stocks are displayed together in the search results. A technique for providing a relationship to a user is known.

JP 2014-16777 A

  However, in the above-described conventional technology, it is not always possible to expand the investment behavior of the user. Specifically, in the above prior art, since the brands searched before and after by the user are displayed, the relevance of the range that the user can generally know (for example, the investment relationship between companies and the relevance of names) Etc.) are assumed to be displayed. That is, the information provided to the user is merely a brand of related companies that are generally known. For this reason, the user may not be able to expand the current investment behavior such as discovering a new brand or investing in a new industry.

  The present application has been made in view of the above, and an object thereof is to provide a providing device, a providing method, and a providing program capable of extending a user's investment behavior.

  The providing apparatus according to the present application includes an acquisition unit that acquires user information that is information including a user's action history with respect to brand information on a communication network, and the relevance between the brands based on the user information acquired by the acquisition unit. A calculation unit for calculating an index value indicating the index value, and among the index values of the predetermined brands calculated by the calculation unit, the brands having the index value exceeding the first threshold are excluded, and the first And a providing unit that provides the user terminal with information related to brands having an index value exceeding a second threshold value, which is a value smaller than the threshold value.

  According to one aspect of the embodiment, the user's investment behavior can be expanded.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a providing process according to the embodiment. FIG. 2 is a diagram (1) illustrating an example of related brand information provided by the providing apparatus according to the embodiment. FIG. 3 is a diagram (2) illustrating an example of related brand information provided by the providing apparatus according to the embodiment. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of the providing system according to the embodiment. FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of the providing apparatus according to the embodiment. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a user attribute table according to the embodiment. FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of a browsing history table according to the embodiment. FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an example of a search history table according to the embodiment. FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an example of a text table according to the embodiment. FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a list table according to the embodiment. FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of the brand information storage unit according to the embodiment. FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of the content distribution server according to the embodiment. FIG. 13 is a flowchart (1) illustrating a processing procedure performed by the providing apparatus according to the embodiment. FIG. 14 is a flowchart (2) illustrating a processing procedure performed by the providing apparatus according to the embodiment. FIG. 15 is a hardware configuration diagram illustrating an example of a computer that realizes the function of the providing apparatus.

  Hereinafter, embodiments for providing a providing apparatus, a providing method, and a providing program according to the present application (hereinafter referred to as “embodiments”) will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. In addition, the providing apparatus, the providing method, and the providing program according to the present application are not limited by this embodiment. In the following embodiments, the same portions are denoted by the same reference numerals, and redundant description is omitted.

[1. Example of provision processing)
First, an example of a providing process according to the embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a providing process according to the embodiment. In FIG. 1, an example of processing in which the providing device 100 corresponding to the providing device according to the present application provides information related to issues such as stocks and securities to a terminal device used by a user will be described. Further, FIG. 1 illustrates an example of processing in which a terminal device used by a user displays information related to a brand provided from the providing device 100.

The user terminal 10 ₁ and 10 ₂ shown in FIG. 1 is an information processing terminal to display content such as stock information, web pages, for example, a notebook PC (Personal Computer). In embodiments, the user terminal 10 ₁ is utilized by the user U01. The user terminal 10 ₂ is used by the user U02. The user terminal 10 ₁ and 10 ₂ displays acquired content (e.g., stock information) on the screen. In the following, when it is not necessary to distinguish the user terminals 10 ₁ and 10 ₂ are referred to as "user terminal 10". Further, when there is no need to distinguish between the user U01 and the user U02, they are simply written as “user”. Hereinafter, the user terminal 10 may be referred to as a user. That is, in the following, the user can be read as the user terminal 10.

  The user terminal 10 acquires a web page from the content distribution server 30 according to an operation by the user, and displays the acquired web page. Further, the user terminal 10 displays information on the brand on the acquired web page, performs a search process on the brand, or transmits text data posted on the web from the user in accordance with an operation by the user. Or

  The content distribution server 30 illustrated in FIG. 1 is a server device that distributes content when accessed from the user terminal 10. The content distribution server 30 is a web server, for example, and distributes web pages related to various services when accessed from the user terminal 10. In the example of FIG. 1, the content distribution server 30 distributes, to the user terminal 10, a web page related to a finance site that provides brand price movements to the user. In addition, when the content distribution server 30 receives a search query from the user, the content distribution server 30 transmits a search result (for example, a brand corresponding to the search query) corresponding to the search query to the user terminal 10. Although not shown in FIG. 1, a plurality of content distribution servers 30 may exist. That is, each server, such as a server that distributes a finance site and a server that distributes a search site, may exist as the content distribution server 30 separately.

  A providing apparatus 100 illustrated in FIG. 1 is a server apparatus corresponding to the providing apparatus according to the present application. When the user terminal 10 accesses the content distribution server 30, the providing apparatus 100 acquires user information that is information about the user via the content distribution server 30. The user information includes, for example, attribute information such as the user's age and sex, and the user's behavior history on the communication network for the brand information. The user's action history with respect to the brand information includes, for example, logs such as an action of a user browsing a predetermined brand on a finance site and an action of a user searching for a predetermined brand on a search site.

Then, the providing apparatus 100 calculates an index value (score) indicating the relevance between the brands, which indicates whether or not the given brand has a significant relationship with other brands based on the acquired user information. To do. Furthermore, the providing apparatus 100 generates brand information to be provided to the user based on the calculated index value. Here, the brand information provided by the providing device 100 is brand information in which the relationship between brands is visually expressed (graphically), and is displayed on the screen of the user terminal 10, for example. User U02 is a user to be provided of quotes from providing apparatus 100, for example, by the user terminal 10 ₂ to display the quotes can grasp the relationship between the stocks at a glance. Hereinafter, with reference to FIG. 1, provides apparatus 100 according to the present application, an example of a process for providing a stock information to the user terminal 10 ₂ will be described along the flow. In the following, it generates the providing apparatus 100, the stock information to be provided to the user terminal 10 _2, for distinguishing referred to as "Related quotes".

First, the user terminal 10 ₁ accesses the content distribution server 30, executes a predetermined action on stock (step S11). For example, the user U01 is to browse a given brand in finance site displayed on the user terminal 10 _1, or search for stocks in a search site.

The content distribution server 30 acquires user information of the user U01 including the action history of the user U01 (step S12). The content distribution server 30 may acquire user information using various known techniques. For example, the content distribution server 30, based on the cookie transmitted from the user terminal 10 _1, it identifies the user U01 utilizing user terminal 10 ₁ may acquire the user information of the user U01. As described above, the user information, for example, and attribute information such as age and gender of the user U01, include action log on the user terminal 10 ₁ of the communication network. Incidentally, although not shown in FIG. 1, the user terminal 10 ₁ is sufficient to effect providing process according to the embodiment, it is assumed that a significant number are present.

  The content distribution server 30 transmits the acquired user information to the providing apparatus 100 (step S13). The providing apparatus 100 acquires user information transmitted from the content distribution server 30. Then, the providing apparatus 100 calculates an index value indicating the relationship between the brands based on the acquired user information.

  Although details of the calculation processing according to the embodiment will be described later, for example, the providing apparatus 100 calculates an index value indicating the relationship between the brands based on the browsing history and the search history of the user U01. For example, it is assumed that the browsing history of the user U01 includes a history of browsing information on the brand AAA and a history of browsing information on the brand BBB. In this case, the providing apparatus 100 calculates the index value so that the index values of the brand AAA and the brand BBB are high, assuming that the brand AAA and the brand BBB may have some relationship. Alternatively, it is assumed that the search history of the user U01 includes a history of searching for the brand AAA and a history of searching for the brand BBB. Also in this case, the providing apparatus 100 calculates the index value so that the index values of the brand AAA and the brand BBB are high, assuming that the brand AAA and the brand BBB may have some relationship. Note that the providing apparatus 100 provides, as user information, text data such as messages and comments posted on the network from the user U01, information that the user U01 lists brands (for example, registration of brands in a watch list, The above calculation processing may be performed by using, for example, addition to a portfolio by actually purchasing a brand. Then, the providing apparatus 100 generates related brand information on which the relationship between the brands can be visually grasped based on the calculated index value (step S14).

Subsequently, the providing apparatus 100, from the user terminal 10 ₂ which is utilized by the user U02, and receives a request for relevant quotes (step S15). For example, the user U02 is a user who accesses the providing apparatus 100 and desires to acquire related brand information provided by the providing apparatus 100 for the purpose of making use in investment behavior.

Providing apparatus 100, in response to a request from the user terminal 10 _2, provides related quotes generated by itself (step S16). User terminal 10 ₂ displays the relevant stock information provided on the screen (step S17). Specifically, the providing apparatus 100 provides when accessed from the user terminal 10 _2, which can display the generated relevant quotes were GUI (Graphical User Interface). That is, in the GUI provided by the providing apparatus 100, the relationship between the brands is graphically displayed based on the index value calculated by the providing apparatus 100. In the example of FIG. 1, providing apparatus 100 provides an interface W10 to the user terminal 10 _2. Note that the interface W10 may be realized as a web page, or may be realized as content displayed by an application provided by the providing apparatus 100.

  As shown in FIG. 1, each brand in the related brand information provided by the providing apparatus 100 is visually displayed with a line connecting the brand and brand in the interface W10.

  In the related brand information provided by the providing apparatus 100, a predetermined brand serves as a base point, and a brand having a relationship with the base brand is visually displayed. Specifically, the related brand information is displayed on the interface W10 as a graph expressed by nodes and edges (branches, sides, lines) connecting the nodes having relevance. In the following description, each brand may be expressed as a node, and an edge connecting each node may be expressed as a line.

  For example, in FIG. 1, a node 50 is a node indicating a brand corresponding to AAA Co., Ltd., and is a base point node at the present time. Each node is connected with a line to indicate that it is related to another node. For example, in FIG. 1, the node 50 includes a line 71, a line 72, a line 73, a line 74, and a line 75. In this case, the brand AAA corresponding to the node 50 is related to the brand corresponding to the node connected by each line.

  The providing apparatus 100 performs a predetermined display adjustment process without displaying all the brands related to the brand AAA on the interface W10. Specifically, the providing apparatus 100 excludes a brand having an index value exceeding the first threshold in the calculation process from the display of the interface W10 in relation to the brand AAA. Then, the providing apparatus 100 displays, on the interface W10, a brand having an index value that exceeds the second threshold in the calculation process in relation to the brand AAA.

  Such processing is performed in order to improve the visibility in the interface W10 by eliminating the display of brands having a generally known relationship among the brands displayed on the interface W10. For example, it is assumed that there is an affiliated company “AAA Shoji” for the brand AAA, and both are related to the parent company subsidiary. In this case, for the general user U02, even if a line connecting the two is not displayed, it is obvious that the two are related, and may not lead to new information being provided. .

  For this reason, the providing apparatus 100 sets an index value calculated between brands generally assumed to be highly relevant as the first threshold value. Then, providing apparatus 100 excludes brands having an index value exceeding the first threshold from the display of interface W10 as having an obvious relationship. On the other hand, the providing apparatus 100 sets an index value calculated between brands that are assumed to be significantly related, although the value is smaller than the first threshold, as the second threshold. And the providing apparatus 100 displays on the interface W10 about the brands which have the relationship exceeding a 2nd threshold value. With this adjustment, the providing apparatus 100 can limit the number of nodes connected to a predetermined node by a line in the interface W10, and thus can provide related brand information that is easy to see for the user U02.

  In the example shown in FIG. 1, the node 50 is connected to the node 51, the node 52, the node 53, the node 54, and the node 55 in the interface W10. This indicates that the brand AAA corresponding to the node 50 has an index value that does not exceed the first threshold and exceeds the second threshold, with the brand corresponding to each node.

  The providing apparatus 100 contributes to providing visual information to the user U02 by relatively highlighting the nodes in the interface W10. For example, the providing apparatus 100 relatively highlights a node by displaying a node having a predetermined number of lines in a different color from the other nodes. For example, the node 55 having two or more lines is relatively highlighted with respect to the node having one line (for example, the node is displayed in blue on the screen of the user terminal 10). Etc.) Further, the node 50 and the node 56 having three or more lines are relatively highlighted by a display method different from the node 55 (for example, the node is colored red on the screen of the user terminal 10). Etc.). Thereby, the providing apparatus 100 can provide visual information to the user U02 regarding the brands that are related to many brands.

  In addition, the providing apparatus 100 sets, for example, to which level the related brands are displayed in the interface W10. For example, in the example of FIG. 1, the node 55 is a node directly related to the node 50. If this situation is expressed as “first stage” for the sake of convenience, for example, the node 56 can be said to be a node having a second stage relationship with the node 50. In addition, the node 57 can be said to be a node having a third-level relationship with the node 50. That is, in the example of FIG. 1, it is assumed that the providing apparatus 100 displays nodes having a relationship up to the third stage with respect to the node 50. The setting is variable, and the providing apparatus 100 can provide the user U02 with related brand information that displays the relevance up to the accepted stage by receiving a request from the user U02 via the interface W10, for example. .

As described above, the providing apparatus 100 according to the embodiment acquires user information that is information including an action history of the user U01 with respect to related brand information on the communication network. Further, the providing device 100 calculates an index value indicating the relevance between the brands based on the acquired user information. Then, the providing apparatus 100 excludes brands having index values exceeding the first threshold among the calculated index values of the predetermined brands, and then has a second value that is smaller than the first threshold. providing information about stocks each having an index value exceeding the threshold value to the user terminal 10 _2.

  Thereby, the providing apparatus 100 can provide information indicating the relevance between the brands based on the browsing history and the search history between the users while excluding information obvious to the user U02. For this reason, the user U02 can discover an unexpected relationship between the brands, or can grasp the brands that the user U01 as another user is paying attention to. That is, the providing apparatus 100 can expand the investment behavior of the user U02 by providing such related brand information to the user U02.

  In addition, the providing apparatus 100 provides the user W02 with the interface W10 as a GUI as described above. For this reason, the providing apparatus 100 can accept various requests from the user U02 via the interface W10. This point will be described with reference to FIGS. First, a process in which the providing apparatus 100 receives designation of a node as a base point from the user U02 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 is a diagram (1) illustrating an example of related brand information provided by the providing apparatus 100 according to the embodiment. In the upper part of FIG. 2, the interface W10 shown in FIG. 1 is shown. That is, the related brand information shown in the upper part of FIG. 2 is related brand information in an initial state provided by the providing apparatus 100 to the user U02, and is related brand information whose node as a base point is the node 50.

In the interface W10, the user U02 can operate the pointer 80 to select a base point node. For example, in the upper part shown in FIG. 2, the node serving as the base point is selected as the node 50. Here, the providing apparatus 100 is assumed to have accepted the request shown the effect that the node which becomes the base point of the different nodes from the node 50 from the user terminal 10 _2. Specifically, as shown in the lower part of FIG. 2, it is assumed that the user U02 selects the node 59 by operating the pointer 80 in the interface W10. By such operation, the user terminal 10 _2, node change request is transmitted to the providing apparatus 100 as a base point.

Providing apparatus 100, when receiving a change request from the user terminal 10 _2, as a base point stocks (node) that is selected by the user U02, for generating a related quotes to provide new users U02 (step S20).

  In the lower part of FIG. 2, related brand information generated from the providing apparatus 100 in step S <b> 20 is shown. As shown in the lower part of FIG. 2, the providing apparatus 100 generates related brand information with the node 59 as a base point. In this case, the related brand information provided by the providing apparatus 100 displays a brand related to the brand JJ corresponding to the node 59. For example, when the node 59 becomes the base point, the node W, the node 61, the node 62, and the node 63 that are not displayed in the upper part of FIG. 2 may be displayed on the interface W10. This is because, in the state shown in the upper part of FIG. 2, the node that was displayed only from the base node 50 to the third stage is displayed on the interface W10 because the node 59 is the base point. It shows that.

In this case, the display indicating the node 59 may change. For example, a node 59 that was not highlighted in the upper part of FIG. 2 may be highlighted in the lower part of FIG. This is because, as described above, the nodes 60, 61, 62, and 63 are displayed, and for example, the lines of the node 59 are increased. Thus, the providing apparatus 100 are mutually the interface W10 capable of transmitting and receiving information to provide to the user terminal 10 _2, it is possible to provide seamless information to be displayed by the user U02.

  The providing apparatus 100 may further provide information on the brand to the user U02. As described above, the providing apparatus 100 provides the related brand information indicating the relation between the brands to the user U02. Here, there is a case in which the user U02 is requested to investigate what kind of relationship the predetermined brands actually have. The providing apparatus 100 provides information to the user U02 in response to such a user request. This point will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 3 is a diagram (2) illustrating an example of related brand information provided by the providing apparatus 100 according to the embodiment. The upper part of FIG. 3 shows the interface W10 shown in FIG. 1 as in the upper part of FIG.

  In FIG. 3, the user U02 requests the providing apparatus 100 for information such as the relationship between the brand AAA and the brand BBB. In this case, the user U02 operates the pointer 80 on the interface W10 to select the line 71. Providing apparatus 100 displays information related to selected line 71 when receiving an operation of selecting line 71 (step S30).

  The lower part of FIG. 3 shows an example of information displayed on the interface W10 and information of the line 71 selected by the user U02. For example, when a predetermined line is selected, the providing apparatus 100 provides a search result when a search is executed using brands connected by the line as search queries. In the example in the lower part of FIG. 3, the providing apparatus 100 executes a search process using “AAA”, which is a query corresponding to the brand AAA, and “BBB”, which is a query corresponding to the brand BBB, as search queries. To do. Note that the search query may be transmitted to a predetermined search server via a communication network, or may be transmitted to an internal database of the providing apparatus 100.

  Then, the providing apparatus 100 displays a result of executing the search process using the brands as a search query. For example, in the example shown in the lower part of FIG. 3, the providing apparatus 100 displays, as a search result, a link to a news article about AAA and BBB, a link to a web page provided by AAA, and the like. By displaying such information on the interface W10, the user U02 can know the relationship between the brand AAA and the brand BBB.

  As described above, the providing apparatus 100 according to the embodiment provides related brand information indicating the relevance of brands to the user U02. The providing apparatus 100 can accept various requests from the user U02 by providing the related brand information as the interface W10. The providing apparatus 100 can provide various information to the user U02 in response to the received request. As described above, the providing apparatus 100 can provide information on the brand having a high utility value for the user U02. For example, the providing apparatus 100 can provide the user U02 with information related to the relevance between brands that the user U02 could not know. As a result, the providing apparatus 100 can expand the investment behavior of the user U02. Hereinafter, the providing apparatus 100 and the providing system 1 including the providing apparatus 100 will be described in more detail with reference to the drawings.

[2. System configuration
Next, the configuration of the providing system 1 according to the embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of the providing system 1 according to the embodiment. As illustrated in FIG. 4, the providing system 1 includes a user terminal 10, a content distribution server 30, and a providing device 100. The user terminal 10, the content distribution server 30, and the providing apparatus 100 are connected to be communicable by wire or wireless via a network N (for example, the Internet) that is a communication network. Note that the number of devices included in the providing system 1 illustrated in FIG. 4 is not limited to that illustrated. For example, the providing system 1 may include a plurality of user terminals 10 and a plurality of content distribution servers 30.

  The user terminal 10 is an information processing apparatus used by a user who browses content such as web pages and related brand information. For example, the user terminal 10 is a desktop PC, a notebook PC, a mobile phone such as a smartphone, a tablet terminal, a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), or the like. For example, the user terminal 10 acquires a web page from the content distribution server 30 according to an operation by the user, and displays the acquired web page. Further, the user terminal 10 displays related brand information provided from the providing device 100.

  The content distribution server 30 is a web server that distributes web pages included in a website that provides various services to the user terminal 10. For example, the content distribution server 30 is a portal site, news site, auction site, weather forecast site, shopping site, finance (stock price) site, route search site, map providing site, travel site, restaurant introduction site, SNS (Social Networking) Service) A web page including various information related to a service site, a web blog, and the like is distributed to the user terminal 10.

  The various data distributed from the content distribution server 30 to the user terminal 10 is actually an HTML file or an image that forms a web page, but in the following, it is distributed from the content distribution server 30 to the user terminal 10. Various data may be referred to as content.

  The providing device 100 is a server device corresponding to the providing device according to the present application, and is a server device that provides related brand information to the user terminal 10. For example, the providing apparatus 100 acquires user information including a user's action history on the communication network, and calculates an index value indicating the relationship between the brands based on the acquired user information. Then, providing apparatus 100 generates related brand information based on the calculated index value. Further, the providing apparatus 100 provides the generated related brand information to the user terminal 10 in response to a request from the user terminal 10.

[3. Configuration of the providing device]
Next, the configuration of the providing apparatus 100 according to the embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of the providing apparatus 100 according to the embodiment. As illustrated in FIG. 5, the providing apparatus 100 includes a communication unit 110, a storage unit 120, and a control unit 130. The providing apparatus 100 includes an input unit (for example, a keyboard and a mouse) that receives various operations from an administrator who uses the providing apparatus 100, and an output unit (for example, a liquid crystal display) for outputting various types of information. You may have.

(About the communication unit 110)
The communication unit 110 is realized by, for example, a NIC (Network Interface Card). The communication unit 110 is connected to a communication network in a wired or wireless manner, and transmits and receives information to and from the user terminal 10 and the content distribution server 30 via the communication network.

(About the storage unit 120)
The storage unit 120 is realized by, for example, a semiconductor memory device such as a RAM (Random Access Memory) or a flash memory, or a storage device such as a hard disk or an optical disk. The storage unit 120 according to the embodiment includes a user information storage unit 121 and a brand information storage unit 127. Hereinafter, each storage unit will be described in order.

(User information storage unit 121)
The user information storage unit 121 stores user information that is information about the user. The user information storage unit 121 includes a user attribute table 122, a browsing history table 123, a search history table 124, a text table 125, and a list table 126 as data tables for storing information. Hereinafter, each data table will be described in order.

(About the user attribute table 122)
The user attribute table 122 stores information related to user attributes. Here, FIG. 6 shows an example of the user attribute table 122 according to the embodiment. As illustrated in FIG. 6, the user attribute table 122 includes items such as “user ID”, “terminal ID”, “sex”, and “age”.

“User ID” indicates identification information for identifying a user. “Terminal ID” indicates identification information for identifying a terminal device used by the user. In the embodiment, the user ID and the terminal ID are common to the reference numerals used in the description. For example, a user whose user ID is “U11” indicates “user U11”. A terminal device whose terminal ID is “10 ₃ ” indicates “user terminal 10 ₃ ”. “Gender” indicates the gender of the user. “Age” indicates the age of the user.

That is, in FIG. 6, as an example of information held in the user attribute table 122, the user U11 identified by the user ID “U11” uses the user terminal 10 ₃ identified by the terminal ID “10 ₃ ”. It is shown that. In addition, the user U11 indicates that the gender is “male” and the age is “30s”. Note that the attribute information held in the user attribute table 122 is not limited to gender and age, and for example, occupation, annual income, residence, nationality, and the like may be stored.

(About browsing history table 123)
The browsing history table 123 stores the browsing history related to the brand among the user's behavior history on the network. Here, FIG. 7 shows an example of the browsing history table 123 according to the embodiment. As illustrated in FIG. 7, the browsing history table 123 includes items such as “user ID” and “browsing information”. The “browsing information” has small items such as “brand”, “date and time”, and “type”.

  “User ID” corresponds to the same item shown in FIG. “Browsing information” indicates browsing information regarding the brand of the user on the network. For example, the browsing information includes a brand browsed by a user on a predetermined finance site and a browsing date and time. In addition, although the browsing information of the user in a predetermined finance site is shown as an example in FIG. 7, the number of finance sites used by the user is not limited to one and may be a plurality of sites. The environment in which the user browses the brand is not limited to the website, but may be a predetermined application (for example, a finance-related application that introduces the brand).

  The “brand” indicates the name of the brand browsed by the user. “Date and time” indicates the date and time when the user browsed the brand. The “type” is a user type set by the providing apparatus 100, and is classified according to, for example, the frequency with which the user views the brand. For example, the providing apparatus 100 determines that the type of user who browses a predetermined number or more of brands (for example, 10 or more brands) per day is “heavy user”. Alternatively, the providing apparatus 100 determines that the type of user who browses a number of brands that is 1 or more and 9 or less per day is “middle user”. Further, the providing apparatus 100 determines a user having a browsing history equal to or lower than that of the middle user as a “light user”. The providing apparatus 100 may use a user type for calculation processing described later. In addition, the type may be set including the frequency of investment behavior (such as buying and selling stock) actually performed by the user. For example, a user who has relatively more investment behavior than other users is likely to be determined as a “heavy user”.

  That is, in FIG. 7, as an example of information held in the browsing history table 123, the user U11 identified by the user ID “U11” sets the brand “AAA” to “July 10, 2016 18” on a predetermined finance site. “30:30”, the brand “BBB” was browsed at “18:33 on July 10, 2016”, and the brand “CCC” was browsed at “18:37 on July 10, 2016” Is shown. In addition, the type of the user U11 indicates “heavy user”.

(About the search history table 124)
The search history table 124 stores information related to a search history in which a user searches for a brand. Here, FIG. 8 shows an example of the search history table 124 according to the embodiment. As shown in FIG. 8, the search history table 124 has items such as “user ID” and “search information”. “Search information” has small items such as “search query” and “date and time”.

  “User ID” corresponds to the same item shown in FIG. “Search information” indicates information related to a search for a user on the network. For example, the search information includes brands searched by the user on a predetermined search site, and search date and time. Although FIG. 8 shows user search information at a predetermined search site as an example, the number of search sites used by the user is not limited to one, and a plurality of search sites may be used. The environment in which the user searches for the brand is not limited to the website, but may be a predetermined application (for example, a search application). “Search query” indicates a query used by a user for a search. “Date and time” indicates the date and time when the user searches for the brand.

  That is, in FIG. 8, as an example of information held in the search history table 124, the user U11 identified by the user ID “U11” makes a search query “AAA” “July 9, 2016” at a predetermined search site. "15:00", the search query "BBB" is sent to "July 10, 2016 10:00", and the search query "CCC" is changed to "July 10, 2016 13:00" Indicates that it has been sent. Note that the search query may include a plurality of words. For example, the example illustrated in FIG. 8 indicates that the user U12 transmitted two words “AAA EEE” as a search query at “16:30 on July 9, 2016”.

(About text table 125)
The text table 125 stores text data in messages and comments posted by the user. Here, FIG. 9 shows an example of the text table 125 according to the embodiment. As shown in FIG. 9, the text table 125 includes items such as “user ID” and “text data information”. The “text data information” has small items such as “type”, “text data”, and “extracted brand”.

  “User ID” corresponds to the same item shown in FIG. “Text data information” indicates a log when the user transmits text data in the user's action history on the network.

  “Type” indicates the type of medium on which the user has transmitted the text data. For example, the providing apparatus 100 acquires text data transmitted from a user from a bulletin board on a finance site, an SNS, or a comment column in finance news. The type indicates the type of medium such as a bulletin board, SNS, or comment field. FIG. 9 shows an example of simple description such as “Bulletin Board Post” as information stored in the type item. Actually, the type item indicates which bulletin board at which site. Such information as SNS names, news sites, IDs for identifying individual news, and the like may be further stored.

  “Text data” indicates text data transmitted by the user. “Extracted brand” indicates a brand extracted from text data transmitted by the user. For example, the providing apparatus 100 extracts a word that is presumed to indicate a brand by performing morphological analysis on text data transmitted by the user. The providing apparatus 100 may extract a plurality of brands from one text data.

  That is, in FIG. 9, as an example of information held in the text table 125, the user U11 identified by the user ID “U11” has written the text data “AAA announces a new product” on a predetermined bulletin board. (Sent). Then, the providing apparatus 100 indicates that the brand “AAA” has been extracted from the text data. In addition, for example, the user U11 has posted (sent) text such as text data “AAA stock purchased” in a predetermined SNS. Then, the providing apparatus 100 indicates that the brand “AAA” has been extracted from the text data.

(About the list table 126)
The list table 126 stores information on brands listed by the user in the user's action history on the network. Here, FIG. 10 shows an example of the list table 126 according to the embodiment. As illustrated in FIG. 10, the list table 126 includes items such as “user ID” and “list information”. The “list information” has small items such as “watch list” and “portfolio”.

  “User ID” corresponds to the same item shown in FIG. “List information” indicates information when the user lists the brands. The “watch list” indicates a list created when a user designates a given brand as a brand to be noticed. For example, a watch list is created for each predetermined finance site. “Portfolio” indicates a list of stocks forming the user's assets. For example, portfolios are listed based on information about brands actually purchased by the user. Although not shown in FIG. 10, information indicating the ratio of the value of each brand among the assets owned by the user may be stored in the portfolio.

  That is, in FIG. 10, as an example of information held in the list table 126, brands “AAA”, “BBB”, and “CCC” are listed as a watch list of the user U11 identified by the user ID “U11”. It is shown that. Further, it is indicated that the brand of the user U11 includes brands such as “EEE”, “FFF”, and “GGG”.

(About the brand information storage unit 127)
The brand information storage unit 127 stores information about each brand used for generating related brand information to be provided to the user. Here, FIG. 11 shows an example of the brand information storage unit 127 according to the embodiment. As illustrated in FIG. 11, the brand information storage unit 127 includes items such as “brand” and “related information”. The “related information” has small items such as “target brand” and “index value”.

  “Brand” indicates the name of the brand. “Related information” indicates information related to the relationship between a predetermined brand and another brand. Specifically, the related information is indicated by an index value (score) indicating the relationship between a predetermined brand and another brand.

  The “target brand” indicates a brand for which a relationship with a predetermined brand is to be calculated. The “index value” indicates an index value indicating the relationship between a predetermined brand and another brand. In the example of FIG. 11, the index value is normalized so that the calculated value can be expressed by a numerical value from 0 to 100. In the example of FIG. 11, 0 is the least relevant and 100 is the most relevant as an index value indicating the relevance between brands.

  In the embodiment, it is assumed that “80” is the first threshold value and “60” is the second threshold value among the normalized index values. In this case, brands having an index value exceeding “80” are information that is not displayed on the interface W10 shown in FIG. On the other hand, brands whose index value exceeds “60” and whose index value is “80” or less are information displayed on the interface W10.

  That is, in FIG. 11, as an example of information held by the brand information storage unit 127, the index value of the brand “XXX” for the brand “AAA” is “93”, and the index value of the brand “YYY” is “85”. Yes, the index value of the brand “ZZZ” is “84”. Since the brand “XXX”, the brand “YYY”, and the brand “ZZZ” have an index value that exceeds the first threshold with the brand “AAA”, as shown in FIG. It is not displayed as a brand related to the brand “AAA”. Also, the index value of the brand “FFF” for the brand “AAA” is “75”, the index value of the brand “BBB” is “71”, and the index value of the brand “CCC” is “68”. Show. Since the brand “FFF”, the brand “BBB”, and the brand “CCC” have an index value that exceeds the second threshold with the brand “AAA”, as shown in FIG. It is displayed as a brand related to the brand “AAA”. The index value of the brand “PPP” for the brand “AAA” is “49”, and the index value of the brand “QQQ” is “42”. Since the brand “PPP” and the brand “QQQ” do not have an index value exceeding the second threshold with the brand “AAA”, the brand “AAA” is displayed in the interface W10 as shown in FIG. It is not displayed as a stock related to.

  In the example of FIG. 11, the index value is normalized to a numerical value from 0 to 100. However, the present invention is not limited to this example, and the providing apparatus 100 may represent the index value by an arbitrary numerical value. May be. Further, the providing apparatus 100 is not limited to the above example, and may set arbitrary numerical values for the first threshold value and the second threshold value.

(About the control unit 130)
The control unit 130 is a controller, for example, various programs (an example of a provided program) stored in a storage device inside the providing apparatus 100 by a CPU (Central Processing Unit), an MPU (Micro Processing Unit), or the like. This is realized by executing the RAM as a work area. The control unit 130 is a controller, and is realized by an integrated circuit such as an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) or a field programmable gate array (FPGA).

  As illustrated in FIG. 5, the control unit 130 according to the embodiment includes an acquisition unit 131, a calculation unit 132, a reception unit 133, a generation unit 134, and a provision unit 135, and information processing described below. Realize or execute the functions and operations of Note that the internal configuration of the control unit 130 is not limited to the configuration illustrated in FIG. 5, and may be another configuration as long as information processing described later is performed. In addition, the connection relationship between the processing units included in the control unit 130 is not limited to the connection relationship illustrated in FIG. 5, and may be another connection relationship.

(About the acquisition unit 131)
The acquisition unit 131 acquires various types of information. For example, the acquisition unit 131 acquires user information that is information about the user. Specifically, the acquisition unit 131 acquires user information that is information including a user's action history with respect to the brand information on the communication network. The user information includes identification information for identifying the user and the user terminal 10, user attribute information, and the like.

  The acquisition unit 131 acquires, for example, a brand browsing history as an action history on the user's network. Specifically, the acquisition unit 131 acquires a brand browsed by a user on a medium such as a predetermined finance site, a browsing frequency, and the like.

  Further, the acquisition unit 131 includes, as user information, search behavior related to the brand in the user, text data posted by the user regarding the brand, information in which the user lists the brand (for example, information registered by the user in the watch list, In other words, the information such as the brand information included in the watch list of the predetermined user, the brand information included in the portfolio of the predetermined user, or the like is acquired. Then, the acquisition unit 131 stores the acquired information in the user information storage unit 121.

  Moreover, the acquisition part 131 may acquire the purchase action etc. regarding a user's actual brand. Moreover, the acquisition part 131 may acquire the amount, frequency, etc. which buy / sell brands, such as stocks and securities. For example, when the content distribution server 30 is a service site that provides transaction services such as stocks and securities, the acquisition unit 131 acquires such information from the content distribution server 30.

  In the example of FIG. 1, the acquisition unit 131 has acquired the user information from the content distribution server 30, but the information acquisition destination is not limited to the content distribution server 30. For example, the acquisition unit 131 may acquire user information from the user terminal 10. The acquisition unit 131 may appropriately acquire user information not only from the user terminal 10 and the content distribution server 30 but also from a predetermined external server. For example, the acquisition unit 131 may acquire information from a cloud server or the like that accumulates information on the user terminal 10.

(About the calculation unit 132)
Based on the user information acquired by the acquisition unit 131, the calculation unit 132 calculates an index value indicating the relevance between brands. Specifically, the calculation unit 132 includes at least one of the browsing history of the brand information acquired by the acquisition unit 131, the search behavior regarding the brand, the text data posted by the user regarding the brand, and the information that the user lists the brand. Based on one of them, an index value indicating the relationship between the brands is calculated.

  For example, the calculation unit 132 includes a browsing history including a history of browsing the information on the brand AAA and a history of browsing the information on the brand BBB among the browsing histories of each user acquired by the acquisition unit 131. Count the number of Then, the calculation unit 132 has a browsing history including the number of users whose user information has been acquired by the acquisition unit 131, a history of browsing the information on the brand AAA, and a history of browsing the information on the brand BBB. An index value indicating the relationship between the brand AAA and the brand BBB is calculated on the basis of the ratio to the number. For example, the calculation unit 132 has a higher ratio of the number of users having a browsing history including a history of browsing the information of the brand AAA and a history of browsing the information of the brand BBB with respect to the total number of users. The relationship between the brand AAA and the brand BBB is calculated to be high. In such a method, the calculation unit 132 can calculate an index value indicating relevance with respect to the search history using the same method.

  Note that the calculation unit 132 may calculate an index value indicating the relationship between brands based on various known methods. For example, the calculation unit 132 may obtain an odds ratio as a technique for calculating an index value indicating the relationship between two objects. Specifically, the calculation unit 132 includes the total number of users who have acquired the user information, the number of users who have viewed the brand AAA, the number of users who have viewed the brand BBB, and the number of users who have viewed both the brand AAA and the brand BBB. An index value indicating relevance is calculated from the odds ratio. In this case, the calculation unit 132 may obtain the log odds ratio by taking the logarithm of each number, and may use it as an index value indicating the relationship between the brand AAA and the brand BBB. The calculation unit 132 may normalize the obtained index value to obtain an index value that can be expressed by a numerical value from 0 to 100, for example.

  Further, the calculation unit 132 calculates an index value indicating the relevance between the brands based on the text data and the listed information. For example, the calculation unit 132 calculates an index value indicating the relevance between brands based on the commonality of brands extracted in text data transmitted by a predetermined user to an SNS or a bulletin board. Specifically, when the calculation unit 132 extracts the brand AAA included in the message sent by the predetermined user to the SNS and the brand BBB included in the text posted on the bulletin board, the calculation unit 132 calculates the relevance between the two. To do. For example, the calculation unit 132 can obtain the log odds ratio as described above as an index value of relevance. In this case, the calculation unit 132 includes the total number of users who have acquired the user information, the number of users who transmitted text data including the brand AAA, the number of users who transmitted text data including the brand BBB, and the text data including the brand AAA. The index value is calculated from the logarithmic odds ratio with the number of users who transmitted the text data including the brand BBB.

  Note that when using the text data, the calculation unit 132 may use text data including two or more brands in one text data for processing. In other words, the calculation unit 132 may extract two or more brands that co-occur in the text data, and calculate the index value with these brands as highly related brands. Thereby, since the calculation part 132 can utilize the data assumed to be more relevant for a process, it can improve the precision of calculation of relevance.

  Further, the calculation unit 132 may narrow down target users under certain conditions, and calculate an index value indicating the relationship between brands as a predetermined user group. For example, the calculation unit 132 classifies the users into groups based on the frequency of browsing the brand information by the user or the frequency of investment behavior executed by the user, and based on the user information for each classified group, An index value indicating relevance may be calculated.

  For example, the calculation unit 132 classifies users into groups based on the types of users stored in the browsing history table 123. For example, the calculation unit 132 calculates an index value indicating the relationship between the brands based on the user information of each user, with a user corresponding to “heavy user” as a processing target. Thereby, the calculation part 132 can extract the brand determined to have relevance in the user classified as a heavy user. As described above, the value calculated by the user's behavior on the network changes as the relationship between the brands. That is, the related brand information generated by the generation unit 134 described later is “relevance calculated along with the behavior of the heavy user group” by targeting a group of heavy users without processing all users. It is assumed that the stock information changes to related stock information. For this reason, the user who browses related brand information can grasp | ascertain the brands which a heavy user handles as a related brand, or can know the related brand which only a heavy user can know.

  In addition, the calculation unit 132 classifies the users into groups based on the user attribute information acquired by the acquisition unit 131, and calculates an index value indicating the relevance between the brands based on the user information for each classified group. May be. For example, the calculation unit 132 calculates an index value indicating the relationship between brands based on the user information of each user, with a user having the attribute of “male” as a processing target. Thereby, the calculation part 132 can calculate the index value which shows the relationship of brands based only on the user information acquired from the male user.

(About the reception unit 133)
The accepting unit 133 accepts various requests. For example, the reception unit 133 receives a request for providing related brand information from the user. When the reception unit 133 receives such a request, the generation unit 134 described later generates related brand information based on the index value indicating the relevance calculated by the calculation unit 132. The providing unit 135 provides the generated related brand information to the user in response to the request.

  Moreover, the reception part 133 receives various requests | requirements regarding the related brand information provided to the user via the interface W10. For example, the reception unit 133 receives a request transmitted from the user terminal 10 in response to a selection operation for a brand displayed on the user terminal 10 or a line connecting the brands. For example, when a brand is selected, the reception unit 133 receives a request to newly generate related brand information based on the selected brand.

  Moreover, when the reception part 133 receives the request | requirement triggered by operation which selects the line which connects the brands displayed on the user terminal 10 from the user terminal 10, the relationship between the brands connected by the line is shown. The request to provide the information to be received is accepted. Specifically, the reception unit 133 receives a request from the user to provide a search result when two brands are used as a search query. The accepting unit 133 sends the accepted request to the generating unit 134 and the providing unit 135.

(About the generator 134)
When the reception unit 133 receives a request from the user terminal 10, the generation unit 134 generates related brand information that is information indicating the relationship between the brands. Specifically, when the generation unit 134 receives provision of related brand information from the user terminal 10, the generation unit 134 generates related brand information that indicates the relationship between the brands based on a predetermined brand.

  The generation unit 134 may generate the related brand information as information that is displayed on the interface W10 and that can accept various requests from the user terminal 10. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 2 and FIG. 3, the generation unit 134 generates related brand information in a mode in which the user can select each node (brand) or a line between each node. To do.

  In addition, when the change of the base point is received by the reception unit 133, the generation unit 134 newly generates related brand information using the selected node (brand) as a base point. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 2, the generation unit 134 changes a node as a base point, and accordingly, generates related brand information in which a brand to be highlighted and a line connecting brands are changed. The generating unit 134 sends the generated related brand information to the providing unit 135.

(About providing unit 135)
The providing unit 135 provides the related brand information generated by the generating unit 134 to the user terminal 10. For example, the providing unit 135 excludes the stocks having the index value exceeding the first threshold among the index values of the predetermined stocks calculated by the calculation unit 132, and then the index value exceeding the second threshold. The information regarding the brands having “” is provided to the user terminal 10.

  Also, as shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the providing unit 135 is information to be displayed on the user terminal 10 used by the user, and accepts a selection operation for the displayed brand or a line connecting the brands from the user. As possible information, related brand information which is information about brands is provided to the user terminal 10. Specifically, the providing unit 135 provides related brand information to the user terminal 10 via the interface W10. That is, the providing unit 135 provides related brand information as visual information that can accept various requests from the user.

  Furthermore, when the receiving unit 133 receives a request from the user terminal 10 triggered by an operation for selecting a brand displayed on the user terminal 10, the providing unit 135 is selected based on the selected brand. Information relating to a brand having an index value exceeding the second threshold value is provided to the user terminal 10. That is, the providing unit 135 provides the user terminal 10 with related brand information newly generated by the generation unit 134 using the brand selected by the user as a base point. In this case, in the related brand information displayed on the user terminal 10, the providing unit 135 generates information newly generated in real time on the screen of the user terminal 10 when the brand is selected with the pointer 80. You may make it display.

  In addition, when the receiving unit 133 receives a request from the user terminal 10 triggered by an operation of selecting a line connecting the brands displayed on the user terminal 10 by the receiving unit 133, the brand connected by the line Information indicating the relationship between each other may be provided. Specifically, when the receiving unit 133 receives a request from the user terminal 10 triggered by an operation of selecting a line connecting brands displayed on the user terminal 10 by the receiving unit 133, the providing unit 135 connects the lines with a line. Information about the two brands (for example, using the brand name as a search query) and providing search result information when a search is performed as information indicating the relevance between brands connected by a line Good.

  Further, the providing unit 135 has, for the brands displayed on the user terminal 10, brands having a predetermined number of lines connecting the brands with respect to brands having lines connecting the brands having a number smaller than the predetermined number. Information relating to the brand may be provided to the user terminal 10 in a highlighted manner. Specifically, the providing unit 135 displays information on the brand in the user terminal 10 in such a manner that a brand having two or more lines connecting the brands is highlighted with respect to a brand having one line connecting the brands. May be provided. For example, the providing unit 135 emphasizes a brand having two or more lines more than a brand having only one line, and emphasizes a brand having three or more lines than a brand having two or more lines. May be provided at.

[4. Content distribution server configuration]
Next, the configuration of the content distribution server 30 according to the embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of the content distribution server 30 according to the embodiment. As illustrated in FIG. 12, the content distribution server 30 includes a communication unit 31, a content storage unit 32, and a control unit 33.

  The communication part 31 is implement | achieved by NIC etc., for example. The communication unit 31 is connected to the network N by wire or wireless, and transmits and receives information to and from the user terminal 10 and the providing device 100.

  The content storage unit 32 is realized by, for example, a semiconductor memory device such as a RAM or a flash memory, or a storage device such as a hard disk or an optical disk. And the content memory | storage part 32 memorize | stores the web page which is an example of a content. For example, the content storage unit 32 stores an HTML file that forms a web page, a still image or a moving image displayed on the web page.

  The control unit 33 is realized, for example, by executing various programs stored in the storage device inside the content distribution server 30 using the RAM as a work area by a CPU, an MPU, or the like. The control unit 33 is realized by an integrated circuit such as an ASIC or FPGA, for example.

  As illustrated in FIG. 12, the control unit 33 includes a reception unit 34 and a distribution unit 35, and realizes or executes information processing functions and operations described below. Note that the internal configuration of the control unit 33 is not limited to the configuration illustrated in FIG. 12, and may be another configuration as long as information processing described later is performed. Further, the connection relationship between the processing units included in the control unit 33 is not limited to the connection relationship illustrated in FIG. 12, and may be another connection relationship.

  The accepting unit 34 accepts a web page acquisition request from the user terminal 10. For example, the reception unit 34 receives an HTTP request as a web page acquisition request. The accepting unit 34 accepts various operations (requests, etc.) on the web page by the user. These pieces of information are held in the content distribution server 30 for each user as a user action history (log).

  The distribution unit 35 distributes the web page to the user terminal 10 when the reception unit 34 receives a web page acquisition request. Specifically, the distribution unit 35 acquires an acquisition request target web page from the content storage unit 32 and distributes the acquired web page to the user terminal 10. In addition, the distribution unit 35 transmits user information corresponding to the user terminal 10 that requested acquisition of the web page to the providing apparatus 100.

[5. Processing procedure)
Next, a processing procedure performed by the providing apparatus 100 according to the embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 13 and 14. First, the procedure of the acquisition process and the calculation process according to the embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 13 is a flowchart (1) illustrating a processing procedure performed by the providing apparatus 100 according to the embodiment.

  As illustrated in FIG. 13, the providing apparatus 100 acquires user information including a user action history (Step S101). Then, the providing apparatus 100 determines whether or not sufficient information necessary for calculating the index value indicating the relationship between the brands has been accumulated (step S102). When the providing apparatus 100 has not acquired a sufficient number of pieces of user information required for calculation (step S102; No), the providing apparatus 100 repeats the acquisition process.

  On the other hand, when the providing apparatus 100 has acquired a sufficient number of pieces of user information required for calculation (step S102; Yes), the providing apparatus 100 calculates an index value indicating the relationship between the brands (step S103). Then, the providing device 100 stores the index value indicating the calculated relevance between the brands in the storage unit 120 (step S104).

  Next, the procedure of the reception process, the generation process, and the provision process according to the embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 14 is a flowchart (2) illustrating a processing procedure performed by the providing apparatus 100 according to the embodiment.

  As illustrated in FIG. 14, the providing apparatus 100 determines whether a request for related brand information has been received from the user terminal 10 (step S201). When the request for related brand information has not been received (step S201; No), the providing apparatus 100 waits until the request is received.

  On the other hand, when the request for the related brand information is received (step S201; Yes), the providing apparatus 100 uses the predetermined brand (for example, a brand set in advance as a base point at the time of initial display) as the base brand information. Is generated (step S202). Then, the providing device 100 provides the generated related brand information to the user terminal 10 (step S203).

  After the related brand information is displayed on the user terminal 10, the providing apparatus 100 determines whether or not an end of browsing of the related brand information has been received from the user terminal 10 at an arbitrary timing (step S204). Note that the end of browsing related brand information means, for example, that the browser software or the like displaying the related brand information is terminated on the user terminal 10 side. When the end of browsing related brand information is received (step S204; Yes), the providing apparatus 100 ends the process.

  On the other hand, when the end of browsing related brand information has not been received (step S204; No), the providing apparatus 100 waits to receive a predetermined request from the user terminal 10. Here, providing apparatus 100 determines whether or not a brand as a new base point has been received via interface W10 (step S205). When a brand as a new base point is not received (step S205; No), the providing apparatus 100 waits to receive a predetermined request from the user terminal 10.

  On the other hand, when a brand as a new base point is received (step S205; Yes), the providing apparatus 100 regenerates related brand information using the received brand as a base point (step S206). Then, the providing apparatus 100 provides newly generated related brand information (step S207). Such processing may be realized seamlessly via the interface W10 on the screen of the user terminal 10. Providing apparatus 100 repeats such processing until the end of browsing is received from user terminal 10.

  The providing apparatus 100 may accept not only a brand as a new base point but also various requests in step S205. For example, the providing apparatus 100 may accept a request for information indicating the relationship between brands from the user terminal 10. In such a case, the providing apparatus 100 provides the user terminal 10 with information indicating the relationship between the brands (for example, search result information obtained by performing a search using the brand as a search query).

[6. (Modification)
The providing system 1 according to the above-described embodiment may be implemented in various different forms other than the above-described embodiment. Therefore, in the following, another embodiment of each device included in the providing system 1 will be described.

[6-1. Processing that uses the freshness of information)
In the embodiment described above, the providing apparatus 100 excludes brands having an index value exceeding the first threshold among index values of predetermined brands, and then, between brands having an index value exceeding the second threshold It was shown that the information regarding the user terminal 10 is provided. Here, the providing apparatus 100 may select information to be provided to the user terminal 10 based on the freshness of the index value indicating the relevance.

  For example, for brands that have passed a relatively long period (for example, one year or more) since a business alliance or the like, it is assumed that the relevance between the two is calculated over a relatively long period. In other words, it is assumed that the index value indicating the relationship between the two does not change significantly over a long period of time.

  On the other hand, index values indicating the relationship between stocks may fluctuate due to various events such as business alliances, joint development of products, and acquisitions. In investment activities, capturing such fluctuating information can be beneficial to the user.

  Therefore, the providing apparatus 100 may perform processing that uses freshness of information in addition to the processing of the above embodiment. For example, when providing an index value indicating the relationship between brands, the providing apparatus 100 calculates a difference between the index value indicating the correlation between brands and the previously calculated index value. Then, the providing apparatus 100 provides the user terminal 10 with information related to brands having a difference when the difference between the calculated index values of the predetermined brands exceeds the third threshold.

  Specifically, it is assumed that providing apparatus 100 has previously calculated the index value as “70” for the relationship between brand AAA and brand RRR. Then, it is assumed that the providing apparatus 100 calculates the index value at the present time as “68” for the relationship between the brand AAA and the brand RRR. In this case, if the index value of the relationship between the brand AAA and the brand RRR is “68” and the second threshold is “60” as shown in the embodiment, the brand having a relation with the brand AAA The brand RRR should be displayed on the interface W10. Here, it is assumed that the providing apparatus 100 has set the third threshold value to “15”. In this example, the difference between the calculated index value of the brand AAA and the brand RRR is “2” and does not exceed the third threshold value. In this case, the providing apparatus 100 does not display on the interface W10 as a value that does not exceed the third threshold even if the index value of the relationship between the brand AAA and the brand RRR exceeds the second threshold. May be performed.

  That is, the providing apparatus 100 can perform a process of displaying only the brands whose relevance is relatively new on the interface W10. As a result, the providing apparatus 100 can exclude only information that has been related and has been known to the user to some extent, and can display only brands that have a relatively new relationship. it can. For this reason, since the providing apparatus 100 can preferentially provide new information to the user, it can improve the visibility of the information and can provide information useful for the investment activity of the user.

[6-2. (Requests accepted from the terminal)
As described above, the providing apparatus 100 can accept various requests from the user terminal 10 by providing the related brand information via the interface W10. For example, the providing apparatus 100 may accept a request to display only the brands whose stock prices and the number of transactions are increasing on the interface W10. Further, the providing apparatus 100 may accept a request to display or hide a brand for each business type. For example, the user may want to know what kind of relevance is associated with a company in a non-same industry rather than a connection in the same industry with respect to a brand as a base point. That is, the user cannot obtain new information if the user is in the same industry, but may be able to obtain new information if the user is a non-same industry. In such a case, the user can transmit a request such as displaying only brands related to companies in non-same industries with respect to the brand as a base point. Providing apparatus 100 newly generates related brand information in response to such a request.

[6-3. (Relevance display)
In the above-described embodiment, the providing apparatus 100 transmits the search result information when the brand is a search query as information indicating the relationship between the brands. However, the providing apparatus 100 may transmit different information as information indicating the relationship between brands.

  For example, the providing apparatus 100 may transmit result information obtained by calculating relevance. For example, when the line connecting the brands is selected by the user, the providing apparatus 100 displays the result information of the browsing history such as “YY people out of XX are browsing these two brands” on the interface W10. May be displayed (XX and YY are arbitrary numerical values). Accordingly, the providing apparatus 100 can provide not only information (for example, search result information) indicating the relationship between actual brands but also an actual statistical result indicating why the brands are connected and displayed with lines. . For this reason, the user can directly acquire information on what brands other users are paying attention to.

[6-4. (Selection of users to generate related stock information)
In the said embodiment, the provision apparatus 100 illustrated producing | generating the related brand information for every group classified by the attribute of the user group and the type (heavy user, middle user, etc.) of the user group. Here, the providing apparatus 100 may generate related brand information for each group classified by different conditions.

  For example, the providing apparatus 100 acquires user information in more detail regarding the content that the user browses. The providing apparatus 100 classifies the users into groups based on the acquired information. For example, the providing apparatus 100 may classify users browsing mainly domestic stocks as a group, may classify users trading mainly as investment trusts as a group, and transactions within a predetermined period are in surplus. May be classified as a group.

  Then, the providing apparatus 100 may accept designation of those groups from the user displaying the related brand information. When receiving the request, the providing apparatus 100 provides the user with related brand information generated based on user information of a group of users corresponding to the request. Thereby, the user who browses related brand information can obtain useful information such as what brands a user who meets various conditions considers related to each other.

[6-5. (Display on the interface)
Providing apparatus 100 may execute processing other than the display processing described above when displaying related brand information on interface W10. For example, the providing apparatus 100 may perform a display process on the brand displayed in the related brand information, for example, adding a predetermined mark to a brand that has dropped from the previous day or a brand that has risen from the previous day. . Thereby, the providing apparatus 100 can provide various information to the user via the interface W10.

[6-6. Threshold)
In the above-described embodiment, the example in which the first threshold is 80 and the second threshold is 60 is shown as an example of the index value threshold set by the providing apparatus 100. These numerical values can be arbitrarily changed in accordance with the number of brands to be displayed in the related brand information and user settings.

  For example, for the other brands for the predetermined brand, the providing apparatus 100 has the index values of the top five brands exceeding the first threshold, and the index values of the top six to ten brands are the first. Each threshold value may be set by adjusting the threshold value so that it belongs to the second threshold value. With this process, the providing apparatus 100 provides related brand information such that the top five brands are not displayed in the related brand information for the predetermined brand, and the top six to ten brands are displayed in the related brand information. it can. Thereby, the providing apparatus 100 can adjust the number of brands displayed on the interface W10 to an arbitrary number, and can improve the visibility of the user with respect to related brand information.

[6-7. Each device of the providing system]
Each device included in the providing system 1 may be realized by various modifications. For example, the providing apparatus 100 may also serve as processing executed by the content distribution server 30. The providing apparatus 100 may perform a process of providing related brand information on a web page provided by the content distribution server 30. That is, related brand information may be provided to user terminal 10 as one of contents displayed on a finance site, for example.

[7. Others]
In addition, among the processes described in the above embodiment, all or part of the processes described as being automatically performed can be performed manually, or the processes described as being performed manually can be performed. All or a part can be automatically performed by a known method. In addition, the processing procedures, specific names, and information including various data and parameters shown in the document and drawings can be arbitrarily changed unless otherwise specified.

  Further, each component of each illustrated apparatus is functionally conceptual, and does not necessarily need to be physically configured as illustrated. In other words, the specific form of distribution / integration of each device is not limited to that shown in the figure, and all or a part thereof may be functionally or physically distributed or arbitrarily distributed in arbitrary units according to various loads or usage conditions. Can be integrated and configured.

  For example, the user information storage unit 121 and the brand information storage unit 127 illustrated in FIG. 5 may be stored in an external storage server or the like without being provided by the providing apparatus 100. In this case, the providing apparatus 100 obtains information on user information and brand information by accessing the storage server.

  In addition, for example, the providing apparatus 100 described above acquires the user information from the content distribution server 30 or distributes the brand information to the user terminal 10 and executes it mainly on the exchange with the external apparatus. And a back-end server that executes a calculation process of index values indicating relevance and a generation process of brand information.

[8. Hardware configuration)
Further, the providing device 100, the content distribution server 30, and the user terminal 10 according to the above-described embodiments are realized by a computer 1000 having a configuration as shown in FIG. 15, for example. Hereinafter, the providing apparatus 100 will be described as an example. FIG. 15 is a hardware configuration diagram illustrating an example of a computer 1000 that implements the functions of the providing apparatus 100. The computer 1000 includes a CPU 1100, RAM 1200, ROM 1300, HDD 1400, communication interface (I / F) 1500, input / output interface (I / F) 1600, and media interface (I / F) 1700.

  The CPU 1100 operates based on a program stored in the ROM 1300 or the HDD 1400 and controls each unit. The ROM 1300 stores a boot program executed by the CPU 1100 when the computer 1000 is started up, a program depending on the hardware of the computer 1000, and the like.

  The HDD 1400 stores a program executed by the CPU 1100, data used by the program, and the like. The communication interface 1500 receives data from other devices via the communication network 500 (corresponding to the network N shown in FIG. 4) and sends the data to the CPU 1100, and the data generated by the CPU 1100 via the communication network 500 To the device.

  The CPU 1100 controls an output device such as a display and a printer and an input device such as a keyboard and a mouse via the input / output interface 1600. The CPU 1100 acquires data from the input device via the input / output interface 1600. Further, the CPU 1100 outputs the data generated via the input / output interface 1600 to the output device.

  The media interface 1700 reads a program or data stored in the recording medium 1800 and provides it to the CPU 1100 via the RAM 1200. The CPU 1100 loads such a program from the recording medium 1800 onto the RAM 1200 via the media interface 1700, and executes the loaded program. The recording medium 1800 is, for example, an optical recording medium such as a DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) or PD (Phase change rewritable disk), a magneto-optical recording medium such as an MO (Magneto-Optical disk), a tape medium, a magnetic recording medium, or a semiconductor memory. Etc.

  For example, when the computer 1000 functions as the providing apparatus 100, the CPU 1100 of the computer 1000 implements the function of the control unit 130 by executing a program loaded on the RAM 1200. In addition, each data in the storage unit 120 is stored in the HDD 1400. The CPU 1100 of the computer 1000 reads these programs from the recording medium 1800 and executes them, but as another example, these programs may be acquired from other devices via the communication network 500.

[9. effect〕
As described above, the providing apparatus 100 according to the embodiment includes the acquisition unit 131, the calculation unit 132, and the provision unit 135. The acquisition unit 131 acquires user information that is information including a user's action history for brand information on the communication network. Based on the user information acquired by the acquisition unit 131, the calculation unit 132 calculates an index value indicating the relevance between brands. The providing unit 135 has an index value exceeding the second threshold value after excluding brands having an index value exceeding the first threshold value from the index values of the predetermined brands calculated by the calculating unit 132. Provide information about brands to the user terminal.

  As described above, the providing apparatus 100 according to the embodiment calculates the relevance between the brands and provides them to the user as information on the brands, and sets the first threshold value and the second threshold value to the user. Select the information to provide. Thereby, the providing apparatus 100 can provide the user with the relevance between brands that are not generally known, rather than information that is generally touched by the user. Thereby, the providing apparatus 100 can provide useful information regarding the brand to the user, and can expand the investment behavior of the user by causing the user to be interested in investment. In addition, since the providing apparatus 100 calculates the relationship between brands based on information based on the user's behavior rather than the investment relationship between the companies, the providing apparatus 100 provides the user with new information different from general company information. Can do. Also by this, the providing apparatus 100 can expand the user's investment behavior.

  Further, the providing unit 135 is information to be displayed on the user terminal 10 used by the user, and information regarding the brands is displayed as information that can be received from the user for a selection operation for the displayed brand or a line connecting the brands. Provided to the terminal 10.

  As described above, the providing apparatus 100 according to the embodiment provides related brand information to the user in a mode in which information can be received and transmitted between each other, for example, as in the interface W10. For this reason, the providing apparatus 100 can receive a request bidirectionally from the user, and can provide information in response to the accepted request, and thus can provide information efficiently.

  The providing apparatus 100 according to the embodiment further includes a reception unit 133 that receives a request transmitted from the user terminal 10 when triggered by a selection operation on the brand displayed on the user terminal 10. When the receiving unit 133 receives a request from the user terminal 10 triggered by an operation for selecting a brand displayed on the user terminal 10, the providing unit 135 selects the selected brand as a base point. Information relating to a brand having an index value exceeding the second threshold with the brand is provided to the user terminal 10.

  As described above, when the providing apparatus 100 according to the embodiment receives a brand as a new base point from the user, the providing apparatus 100 provides the user with related brand information based on the brand. As a result, the providing device 100 can immediately provide information that meets the user's request, thereby improving usability.

  In addition, the reception unit 133 receives a request transmitted from the user terminal 10 in response to a selection operation for a line connecting the brands displayed on the user terminal 10. When the receiving unit 133 receives a request from the user terminal 10 by using the operation of selecting a line connecting the symbols displayed on the user terminal 10 by the receiving unit 133, the providing unit 133 Provide relevance information.

  As described above, the providing apparatus 100 according to the embodiment can not only display the association between the brands but also provide information about the association to the user. As a result, the providing apparatus 100 can provide the user with more detailed information on the brand, thereby increasing the user's investment and interest in the brand and promoting the user's investment behavior.

  In addition, when the receiving unit 133 receives a request from the user terminal 10 by using the operation of selecting a line connecting the brands displayed on the user terminal 10 by the receiving unit 133, the providing unit 135 is connected with the line 2 The search result information when a search is performed using information related to one brand is provided as information indicating the relevance between brands connected by a line.

  As described above, the providing apparatus 100 according to the embodiment provides search result information using a brand as a search query as information on the relationship between brands. Thereby, the providing apparatus 100 can provide the user with the relationship between the brands in more detail.

  In addition, the providing unit 135 has, for the brands displayed on the user terminal 10, a brand having a predetermined number of lines connecting the brands to a brand having a line connecting a number of brands smaller than the predetermined number. Information relating to the brand is provided to the user terminal 10 in a highlighted manner.

  As described above, the providing apparatus 100 according to the embodiment highlights the brand displayed on the interface W10, thereby displaying information such as whether or not the brand has a large number of associations with other brands. It can be provided in a visually determinable manner. As a result, the providing apparatus 100 can improve the usability because it can improve the visibility of the related brand information to be provided.

  Further, the acquisition unit 131 includes, as user information, the browsing history of the brand information for the user, the search behavior regarding the brand for the user, the text data transmitted from the user regarding the brand, the brand information included in the user's watch list, and the user's portfolio. Acquire at least one of the included brand information. The calculation unit 132 acquires the browsing information of the brand information in the user acquired by the acquisition unit 131, the search behavior related to the brand in the user, the text data transmitted from the user regarding the brand, the brand information included in the user's watch list, the user's Based on at least one of the brand information included in the portfolio, an index value indicating the relationship between the brands is calculated.

  As described above, the providing apparatus 100 according to the embodiment acquires various types of information as user information, and calculates an index value indicating the relevance of the brand based on the acquired information. Thereby, since the providing apparatus 100 can determine the relevance of the brand from various angles, it becomes easier for the user to provide new information.

  Moreover, the acquisition part 131 acquires the frequency of the browsing of brand information in a user, or the frequency of the investment action which a user performs as user information. The calculation unit 132 classifies the user into groups based on the frequency of browsing the brand information by the user or the frequency of investment behavior performed by the user, and obtains the user information for each classified group acquired by the acquisition unit 131. Based on this, an index value indicating the relationship between the brands is calculated.

  As described above, the providing apparatus 100 according to the embodiment can classify users into groups with respect to user information used for processing, and can use user information of users belonging to the group. Thereby, the providing apparatus 100 can provide information on brands assumed to be related in a predetermined user group. For example, the providing apparatus 100 can provide the user with related brand information that reflects the actions of heavy users who frequently make investments. That is, the providing apparatus 100 can provide more useful information to the user as information indicating the relevance of the brands.

  The acquisition unit 131 acquires user attribute information as user information. The calculation unit 132 classifies the users into groups based on the user attribute information acquired by the acquisition unit 131, and calculates an index value indicating the relevance between the brands based on the user information for each classified group.

  Thus, the providing apparatus 100 according to the embodiment may classify users into groups based on the attribute information. Thereby, the providing apparatus 100 provides information to the user who browses the related brand information, for example, on the relevance of the brand focused by the user group having an attribute similar to the user who browses the related brand information. Can do. That is, the providing apparatus 100 can provide the user with more useful information because it can accurately provide the information that the user wants.

  In addition, the calculation unit 132 calculates a difference between an index value indicating the relationship between brands and an index value indicating the relationship between the brands calculated previously. The providing unit 135 provides the user terminal 10 with information related to brands having a difference when the difference exceeds the third threshold value among the differences in index values between the predetermined brands calculated by the calculation unit 132.

  As described above, the providing apparatus 100 according to the embodiment may compare the current index value with the past index value and display the brand having a difference in the index value as the related brand information. Thereby, the providing apparatus 100 can provide the user with information related to brands that are assumed to have a relatively new relationship. For this reason, the providing apparatus 100 can increase the possibility of providing new information to the user.

  As described above, some of the embodiments of the present application have been described in detail with reference to the drawings. However, these are merely examples, and various modifications, including the aspects described in the disclosure section of the invention, based on the knowledge of those skilled in the art, It is possible to implement the present invention in other forms with improvements.

  Further, the providing apparatus 100 described above may be realized by a plurality of server computers, and depending on the function, an external platform or the like may be realized by calling an API (Application Programming Interface) or network computing. Can be changed flexibly.

  Further, “section (module, unit)” described in the claims can be read as “means”, “circuit”, and the like. For example, the acquisition unit can be read as acquisition means or an acquisition circuit.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Provision system 10 User terminal 30 Content delivery server 100 Provision apparatus 110 Communication part 120 Storage part 121 User information storage part 122 User attribute table 123 Browse history table 124 Search history table 125 Text table 126 List table 127 Brand information storage part 130 Control part 131 Acquisition Unit 132 Calculation Unit 133 Reception Unit 134 Generation Unit 135 Provision Unit

Claims (12)

An acquisition unit for acquiring user information, which is information including a user's action history for brand information on a communication network;
Based on the user information acquired by the acquisition unit, a calculation unit that calculates an index value indicating the relationship between brands;
A second threshold value that is a value smaller than the first threshold value after excluding the index values that exceed the first threshold value among the index values of the predetermined brands calculated by the calculation unit. A providing unit that provides the user terminal with information on stocks having an index value exceeding
A providing device comprising: The providing unit includes:
Information to be displayed on the user terminal used by the user, and providing the user terminal with information on the brands as information that can be received from the user for a selection operation for the displayed brands or lines connecting the brands.
The providing device according to claim 1. A reception unit that receives a request transmitted from the user terminal in response to a selection operation for the brand displayed on the user terminal;
Further comprising
The providing unit includes:
When a request triggered by an operation for selecting a brand displayed on the user terminal is received from the user terminal by the receiving unit, the selected brand as a base point and the selected brand. Providing the user terminal with information relating to a brand having an index value exceeding the second threshold;
The providing apparatus according to claim 2. The reception unit
Accepting a request sent from the user terminal triggered by a selection operation for a line connecting the brands displayed on the user terminal,
The providing unit includes:
When the reception unit receives a request from the user terminal triggered by an operation of selecting a line connecting the brands displayed on the user terminal, information indicating the relationship between the brands connected by the line is displayed. provide,
The providing device according to claim 3. The providing unit includes:
When the reception unit receives a request from the user terminal triggered by an operation for selecting a line connecting the brands displayed on the user terminal, a search is performed with information on the two brands connected by the line. The search result information in the case of contact is provided as information indicating the relevance between stocks connected by a line,
The providing device according to claim 4. The providing unit includes:
For a brand displayed on the user terminal, a brand having a predetermined number of lines connecting brands is highlighted with respect to a brand having a line connecting a number of brands less than the predetermined number, Providing information on the brand to the user terminal;
The providing device according to any one of claims 2 to 5, wherein The acquisition unit
As the user information, the browsing history of the brand information in the user, the search behavior related to the brand in the user, the text data transmitted from the user regarding the brand, the brand information included in the watch list of the user, included in the portfolio of the user Obtain at least one of the stock information
The calculation unit includes:
Browsing history of brand information in the user acquired by the acquisition unit, search behavior related to brands in the user, text data transmitted from the user regarding brands, brand information included in the watch list of the user, the user's Based on at least one of the stock information included in the portfolio, an index value indicating the relationship between the stocks is calculated.
The providing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 6. The acquisition unit
As the user information, the frequency of browsing brand information in the user, or the frequency of investment behavior executed by the user,
The calculation unit includes:
The user is classified into groups based on the frequency of browsing brand information in the user acquired by the acquisition unit, or the frequency of investment behavior executed by the user, and based on the user information for each classified group, Calculate the index value indicating the relationship between the stocks,
The providing device according to any one of claims 1 to 7. The acquisition unit
As the user information, acquire the user attribute information,
The calculation unit includes:
Classifying users into groups based on the user attribute information acquired by the acquisition unit, and calculating an index value indicating the relevance between brands based on the user information for each group that has been classified,
The providing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein The calculation unit includes:
Calculate the difference between the index value indicating the relationship between the issues and the index value indicating the relationship between the issues calculated previously,
When the difference exceeds a third threshold value among the index value differences between the predetermined brands calculated by the calculation unit, the providing unit provides the user terminal with information on the brands having the difference.
The providing device according to any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein A providing method executed by a computer,
An acquisition step of acquiring user information, which is information including a user's action history for brand information on a communication network;
Based on the user information acquired by the acquisition step, a calculation step of calculating an index value indicating the relationship between the brands;
A second threshold value that is smaller than the first threshold value after excluding those having an index value exceeding the first threshold value from the index values of the predetermined brand values calculated by the calculation step. A providing step of providing the user terminal with information on stocks having an index value exceeding
The providing method characterized by including. An acquisition procedure for acquiring user information, which is information including a user's action history for brand information on a communication network;
Based on the user information acquired by the acquisition procedure, a calculation procedure for calculating an index value indicating the relationship between brands;
A second threshold value that is smaller than the first threshold value after excluding the index values that exceed the first threshold value among the index values of the predetermined brands calculated by the calculation procedure. A provision procedure for providing information about the stocks having index values exceeding
A program for causing a computer to execute.

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