KR20040018004A - Methods for Intermediating Information Transactions Based on Multiple Persons and Apparatus therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A device and a method for arranging an information deal among multiple persons are provided to make a deal at a matched point by making a buyer definitely express a buying intention as noticing the price of the desired information, and making a seller express a selling intention as offering a profile to the buyer. CONSTITUTION: A notifying module(111) notices the purchase information including a question and the price of the desired information to the multiple sellers through the web, receives the selling intention from at least one seller, and offers the corresponding profile to the seller. A settlement module(112) offers various types of settlement methods to the buyer. An evaluating module(113) receives an buyer's opinion evaluating the seller's answer replied to the buyer's question from the buyer and makes it into the objective data. A searching module(114) makes the purchase information include an additional question helping the buyer select the buyer. A storing device(130) stores a program, a seller database(131), a buyer database(132), a purchase information database(133), a question database(135), a deposit account(134), the profiles(1311), and an index(1351).

Description

Method and Intermediating Information Transactions Based on Multiple Persons and Apparatus therefor}

The present invention relates to a method of trading information between a plurality of parties, and more particularly, to a method of closing a transaction based on a published price and a profile provided by a plurality of sellers selling the information.

With the rapid development of the Internet, a lot of information has been scattered in our lives. The large amount of information spread with the development of the Internet is highly desirable in that it provides a basis for providing useful information to people. Unfortunately, too much information has been provided like a flood, which has made the irony harder to find the information you need.

For this reason, it is the business of mediating information that has developed. When trading intangible information, trading characteristics that are different from tangible commodity trading occur. In other words, the buyer should find a means to know before the transaction the utility and reliability of the information provided from the seller.

The conventional information is traded based on the accumulated information. Therefore, excessive costs are required to systematically manage or construct this accumulated information. This spent cost is then passed on to the buyer, raising the transaction price.

In order to solve the problems arising in the transaction of the above information, Korean applications No. 10-2000-58469 and 10-2000-62822 have been created.

58469 requests specific intangible information from an unspecified number of persons, and a plurality of information providers present the information for this information request. Disclosed is an information auction management method of a reverse auction method using a communication network. In particular, 58469 is designed to determine the price according to the information provider's information rating.

According to No. 58469, a transaction is made at a published price according to the class of information provided. However, even the same information has different values according to buyers. In addition, even one piece of information requested by the buyer may be provided with various forms of answers depending on the seller. Therefore, there is a possibility that the information provided by the seller is quantified according to its value, and the price is uniformly set, and the brokering of the transaction based on this price causes a problem that causes the confusion of the transaction price.

No. 62822 discloses an information brokering method configured to trade answers provided from a plurality of sellers classified as grades to a buyer who wants specific information. Particularly, 62822 receives a response from a plurality of sellers belonging to a rating set by a buyer and starts the homepage, and is configured to pay a price to any one seller selected from among them.

Similar to the above-mentioned 58469, the 62822 is configured to determine the price depending on the grade. Therefore, a problem may occur in which a transaction may be made by a seller's unilateral price presentation.

In addition, in 62822, the buyer checks all the answers presented by the seller, and then configures to select any one of them, thereby making a transaction at the initiative of the buyer. Therefore, 62822 has a problem that the transaction can be made only for the satisfaction of the buyer by enabling the unilateral transaction by the buyer.

Fundamentally, these problems arise because the transaction between the seller and the buyer is out of equity.

Transactions between buyers who purchase information by various demands and sellers who provide answers in various cases are carried out in a fluid flow with various variables.

Therefore, the most important thing in the invention of mediating the transaction of information is that the transaction can be made at the point where the intention of the buyer and the intention of the seller agree with each other.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, the buyer discloses the price of the information to purchase to a number of sellers to express the buyer's intention, and the seller responds to the published price It is intended to provide the present invention in which a transaction is made at a point at which these intents are met by providing a profile to the buyer to indicate their selling intent.

The following drawings attached to this specification are illustrative of preferred embodiments of the present invention, and together with the detailed description of the invention to serve to further understand the technical spirit of the present invention, the present invention is a matter described in such drawings It should not be construed as limited to

1 schematically illustrates a computer system to which the present invention is applied.

2 shows a functional configuration of a server computer.

3 illustrates the overall flow of the present invention.

4 shows an example of information required to register with a server computer.

5 illustrates an example of registration information that is announced to a plurality of sellers through the Internet.

6 shows, by way of example, a profile of a seller provided to a buyer.

* Brief description of the major symbols in the drawings *

100: server computer 200: buyer computer 300: seller computer

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention relates to a method for closing a transaction of information based on purchase information announced to a plurality of sellers using a computer. Inputting purchasing information to the server computer; Inputting a payment identifier into the computer based on the purchase information; Notifying the purchase information to a plurality of potential sellers; Providing the buyer with the extracted profile according to the sales intention input from the seller; Requesting a selected seller to answer the question by electronically paying the price based on the payment identifier; Evaluating and inputting the answer provided by the seller into the computer; And updating the profile based on the evaluation.

In addition, the present invention relates to a method for closing a transaction of information based on purchase information notified to a plurality of sellers by using a computer, comprising: a question about information to be obtained, an index to distinguish the question, and a price Inputting purchase information including the purchase information into the server computer; Inputting a payment identifier into the computer based on the purchase information; Transmitting the purchase information to a plurality of sellers extracted based on the index; Providing the buyer with the extracted profile according to the sales intention input from the seller; Requesting a selected seller to answer the question by electronically paying the price based on the payment identifier; Evaluating and inputting the answer provided by the seller into the computer; And updating the profile based on the evaluation.

Preferably, the purchase information further includes additional questions related to the information, in addition to the questions about the information to be obtained, extracting at least one additional question from the computer before providing the profile to the purchaser; Providing the extracted additional questions to a plurality of sellers indicative of sales intention; Inputting a seller's answer to the additional question into the computer; In addition, the answer provides the buyer with the profile of the selected seller.

The present invention also relates to an apparatus for closing a transaction of information based on purchase information announced to a plurality of sellers, the apparatus comprising: a storage device; And a processing device connected to the storage device, wherein the storage device stores a program for controlling the processing device, and the processing device receives a question about information to be obtained and purchase information including a price. and; Receiving a payment identifier based on the purchase information; Announce the purchase information to a number of potential sellers; Providing the buyer with the extracted profile according to the sales intention input from the seller; Request a selected seller to answer the question by electronically paying the price based on the payment identifier; The seller receives an evaluation written based on the answer, and operates by a program for updating the profile.

Preferably, the purchase information further includes additional questions relating to this information, in addition to the questions about the information to be obtained, wherein the processing device is further configured to extract at least one additional question before providing the profile to the buyer; Provide additional extracted questions to a number of sellers who indicated intent to sell; It is characterized in that it operates by a program that examines the answer entered by the seller and provides the buyer with the profile of the selected seller.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Prior to this, terms or words used in the specification and claims should not be construed as having a conventional or dictionary meaning, and the inventors should properly explain the concept of terms in order to best explain their own invention. Based on the principle that can be defined, it should be interpreted as meaning and concept corresponding to the technical idea of the present invention.

Therefore, the embodiments described in the specification and the drawings shown in the drawings are only the most preferred embodiment of the present invention and do not represent all of the technical idea of the present invention, various modifications that can be replaced at the time of the present application It should be understood that there may be equivalents and variations.

First, a computer system applied to the present invention is disclosed in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 1, the computer system of the present invention includes a server computer 100, a buyer computer 200, a seller computer 300, and a line connecting the seller and the buyer. Each line provides an internet connection using the Internet using a public switched telephone network provided by KT or a dedicated line provided by an Internet service provider (ISP) such as Hanaro Telecom. This line is not limited to the Internet and may be made by microwaves such as cellular mobile communication or PCS. The following description will be given by taking the Internet as an example.

The buyer and seller computers 200, 300 provide an input / output gateway in communication with the server computer 100. The computers 200 and 300 are equipped with a network interface capable of data communication via a line, and any computer can be used as long as it can achieve the functions described below.

In addition, a modem for modulating and demodulating a signal between the computers 200 and 300 and the server computer 100 to enable information communication with each other is added.

The server computer 100 may be a conventional personal computer or workstation having a significant amount of memory and processing power, including ROM and RAM, as the server computer 100. In one example, it acts as a web server to notify the multiple sellers of the purchase information created by the buyer. In addition, by receiving a sales intention from a plurality of sellers and transmits a corresponding profile to the buyer, it helps the buyer to select a seller to trade.

In order to achieve this operation, the server computer includes functional means. This functional means can be implemented by a program that defines the order of execution of instructions and allows the computer to perform logical operations.

In FIG. 2, the server computer 100 includes a storage device 130 such as a hard disk which stores data magnetically, and a processing device 110 that reads a program recorded in the storage device, and decodes and executes the command. Including, it is a device that can perform a large amount of logical operation in structure.

Additionally, in the present invention, the processing device 110 includes a posting module 111, a payment module 112, and an evaluation module 113 to perform a logical operation defined in a program recorded in the storage device 130. And functional means such as a search module 114.

The posting module 111 receives a question about information to be obtained from a buyer and purchase information including a price, and notifies a plurality of sellers through a web. Then, the sales intention is input from at least one seller corresponding to the announced purchase information, and the seller provides a profile corresponding thereto.

The payment module 112 provides the buyer with various payment methods so that the buyer can pay the seller a payment fee. Preferably, this payment may be mobile phone payment. This mobile payment allows you to pay your bill using the authorization number sent to your mobile phone. The payment fee paid will be charged in addition to the usage fee of the mobile phone registered in the purchaser's name. Alternatively, credit card payments or online payments currently being performed on the web may be used.

The evaluation module 113 sees the seller's answer input in response to the buyer's question, and receives the buyer's opinion evaluating the seller to make the objective data 603. This objective data 603 assists the buyer's selection by allowing the buyer to indirectly predict the level of response expected from the seller in selecting the seller.

In addition, the search module 114 allows the purchase information to further include additional questions that help select the seller. The search module 114 finds a question related to the question that the buyer wants to obtain from the various questions stored according to the index 1351 and adds it to the purchase information.

The storage device 130 may include a program that implements the above functions, a seller database 131, a buyer database 132, a purchase information database 133, a question database 135, and the like for processing transactions among information. , Deposit account 134, profile 1311 and index 1351 are recorded.

The seller database 131 stores materials related to a seller who sells information between parties who trade information. Information relating to this seller is collected from the seller during registration with the server computer.

4 illustrates an example of materials registered by a seller. The data of sellers that are importantly acquired here is 403. The part number 403 subdivides and records the field of information (hereinafter, referred to as "index") that the seller can provide. This index is provided by the server computer 100. The seller can select the index by clicking on the combo box 411 with a mouse. The 403 also has a section to introduce the seller to the buyer. This 403 is then used as a resource for creating a profile. And 401 and 402 illustrate the seller's basic personal and certification data.

The buyer database 132 stores materials of a person who wants to purchase the information at the announced price. This buyer data is also collected in the same way as the seller.

The purchase information database 133 stores prices and questions about information to be obtained. This purchase information is written by the buyer and is the buyer's subscription to a number of sellers.

5 illustrates an example of purchase information. In FIG. 5, the price 502 included in the purchase information is a reward paid to the seller in exchange for information obtained by the buyer. The announcement of this price to multiple sellers is a sign that the buyer intends to trade at this amount. In addition, the price offered to multiple sellers prior to the closing of the contract helps to ensure stable trading.

This purchase information includes a time limit for the transaction. Information that is only valid for a limited time is information that is no longer needed to the buyer once the period has passed. Therefore, it is necessary to set a period and to make a transaction valid only during this period.

Question 502 informs the buyer of the information the buyer wishes to obtain. In one example, the question may be, "What is the cheapest way to fly from Seoul to New York between July 21 and August 10?" The buyer should write a question for the purpose of informing the seller of the information he wants to obtain, and above all, the question should be written so that the buyer's intention is accurately communicated to the seller.

The buyer may also include additional questions 503 in the purchase information. This additional question 503 is added to the purchase information to selectively select a seller who provides an invalid answer before the seller's profile is passed to the buyer. Therefore, it is desirable that something related to the question be used for additional questions. In the example above, the additional question might be: Which of the following is the international airport in New York?

The buyer selects a field to which the information to be obtained belongs in the combo box 511 of the index. The server computer then randomly selects one of the related questions recorded in the question database 135 based on the input index 1351 and includes it in the purchase information.

Optionally, this additional question is created by the purchaser, included in the purchase information, and sent to the server computer with the answer to this question. Thereafter, the server computer 100 provides additional questions written by the purchaser to the plurality of buyers who have indicated their intention to sell, and selects the seller based on the answers provided by the buyer.

The profile 1311 is a material that helps the buyer to indirectly know the reliability of the information provided by the seller. This profile is made by combining the data indicated by the reference numeral 403 in FIG. 4 showing the seller's data and the data 603 evaluated by the buyer.

6 shows an example of the created profile. The part number 602 is the same as the part number 403, and the part number 601 is human data to help identify the seller.

And, importantly, this profile includes the reference number 603. This 603 is the data created by the evaluation module 113 based on the data previously evaluated by the seller while providing information to other buyers. Therefore, the buyer can indirectly verify the answer provided by the seller through this number.

3 illustrates the overall flow of the present invention. The buyer who wants to obtain the information writes the purchase information and inputs it to the server computer (S100). Purchasing information, including transaction prices, is the same as an offer, in which a purchaser expresses a willingness of transactions to multiple sellers. This transaction price is notified by a number of sellers via purchase information, leaving no room for agreement.

The buyer can enter the purchase information necessary for the web page and simply enter the purchase information into the server computer by clicking the 'send' button 512 provided on the web page. Optionally, the buyer may further include additional questions 503 in the purchase information.

In this process (S100), the buyer makes a payment for the announced price (1001). This payment method is provided with a variety of things. The payment module 112 provides a purchaser with various payment methods currently made on the web, such as online payment, credit card payment, and mobile phone payment. Preferably, the present invention provides mobile phone payments to the purchaser.

In step S200, the purchase information input to the server computer 100 is notified to a number of sellers who want to sell the information. This announcement is made by posting purchase information on the web for multiple sellers to view.

Or, it may be announced by sending to a number of sellers by electronic means, for example, by means such as e-mail, fax. In this case, these sellers are selected based on the index entered during registration with the server computer, and it is preferable to transmit the purchase information to this selected seller.

In addition, since the price included in the purchase information is disclosed to a plurality of buyers in this notification process (S200), there is no problem of negotiating the transaction price (2001).

According to the announced purchase information, the seller inputs a sales intention to the server computer 100 (S300). This sales intent is the seller's intention to close the transaction in response to the purchaser's offer.

If the purchase information includes the additional question, the server computer 100 presents the additional question to the seller and requests the answer to be provided before sending the seller's profile indicating the intention to the buyer. The server computer 100 examines the seller's answer and sends only the profile of the seller who solved this additional question to the buyer.

Then, the server computer 100 transmits to the buyer a profile corresponding to the plurality of sellers who wish to trade according to the input of the seller (S400).

The buyer checks this profile, selects one seller, and informs the server computer 100 of this (S500). As above, it is known to the server computer who has been selected by clicking on the 'select' button 412 provided in the transmitted profile.

In addition, the server computer 100 pays 5001 the amount paid in the process 1001 to the selected seller.

The server computer 100 then asks the selected seller to answer the question. Preferably, the received seller's response (S600) is added to the evaluation data to enable the buyer to evaluate the response before being known to the buyer. This data allows the buyer to comment on the buyer's response and allows this assessment to update the profile.

The response with the evaluation data will be sent electronically to the buyer. The buyer then evaluates the answer, enters the buyer's opinion about the answer into the evaluation data, and sends it to the server computer.

The server computer 100 receives the evaluation of the buyer and objectifies it so that anyone can know the answer of the seller, and updates the seller's profile based on this (S700). Thus, other buyers can know the reliability of the answers expected from this seller based on the seller's profile. In particular, for the same or similar questions, the buyer can accurately predict because of this profile.

As described above, although the present invention has been described by way of limited embodiments and drawings, the present invention is not limited thereto and is intended by those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains. Of course, various modifications and variations are possible within the scope of equivalents of the claims to be described.

According to the present invention, the above problems can be solved. In particular, it is possible to prevent price disputes by notifying the price first, and it is possible to broker a transaction in accordance with the two intentions while the intentions of the buyer and seller are clearly expressed. Buyers can also predict in advance what information they can expect from profiles and additional questions from the seller.

Claims (6)

A method for using a computer to close a transaction of information based on purchase information announced to multiple sellers, Inputting, to the server computer, purchase information including a question about information to be obtained and a price; Inputting a payment identifier into the computer based on the purchase information; Notifying the purchase information to a plurality of potential sellers; Providing the buyer with the extracted profile according to the sales intention input from the seller; Requesting a selected seller to answer the question by electronically paying the price based on the payment identifier; Evaluating and inputting the answer provided by the seller into the computer; And Updating the profile based on the evaluation. A method for using a computer to close a transaction of information based on purchase information announced to multiple sellers, Inputting, to the server computer, purchase information including a question about information to be obtained, an index identifying the question, and a price; Inputting a payment identifier into the computer based on the purchase information; Transmitting the purchase information to a plurality of sellers extracted based on the index; Providing the buyer with the extracted profile according to the sales intention input from the seller; Requesting a selected seller to answer the question by electronically paying the price based on the payment identifier; Evaluating and inputting the answer provided by the seller into the computer; And Updating the profile based on the evaluation. The method according to claim 1 or 2, The purchase information further includes additional questions related to this information, in addition to questions about information to be obtained, Before presenting the profile to a buyer, extracting at least one additional question from the computer; Providing the extracted additional questions to a plurality of sellers indicative of sales intention; Inputting a seller's answer to the additional question into the computer; And And providing a buyer with a profile of the selected seller through the answer. The method according to claim 1 or 2, The purchase information further includes additional questions related to this information, in addition to questions about information to be obtained, Before providing the profile to the purchaser, creating and entering at least one additional question into the server computer; Providing the entered additional questions to a plurality of sellers who have indicated their intention to sell; Inputting a seller's answer to the additional question into the computer; And And providing a buyer with a profile of the selected seller through the answer. Apparatus for closing a transaction of information based on the purchase information announced to a number of sellers, Memory; And A processing device connected with the storage device, The storage device stores a program for controlling the processing device, The processing device, Receiving a question about information to be obtained and purchase information including a price; Receiving a payment identifier based on the purchase information; Announce the purchase information to a number of potential sellers; Providing the buyer with the extracted profile according to the sales intention input from the seller; Request a selected seller to answer the question by electronically paying the price based on the payment identifier; Apparatus, characterized in that operated by the program for updating the profile by receiving the evaluation written by the seller based on the answer. The method of claim 4, wherein The purchase information further includes additional questions related to this information, in addition to questions about information to be obtained, The processing device, before providing the profile to the purchaser, extracts at least one additional question; Provide additional extracted questions to a number of sellers who indicated intent to sell; And a program for inspecting the answer entered by the seller and providing the selected seller's profile to the buyer.