WO2009014336A1

WO2009014336A1 - Method for advertising using local auction of free gift

Info

Publication number: WO2009014336A1
Application number: PCT/KR2008/004141
Authority: WO
Inventors: Young-Wook Jeon
Original assignee: Young-Wook Jeon
Priority date: 2007-07-24
Filing date: 2008-07-15
Publication date: 2009-01-29
Also published as: KR20090010666A; KR100945602B1

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method of advertising by a local auction of gifts. In particular, the invention relates to a method of advertising by a local auction for gifts for efficient advertising within advertiser's budget limit since he can advertise efficiently and adjust the location or exposure frequencies of his advertising depending on the type and amount of mileage spent for the advertising in order to give a motive for a user to view his advertising by providing mileage according to an amount of user's carrying out a task who viewed the advertising, and by inducing the user to make a bid for gifts provided by an advertiser at an auction with the provided mileage.

Description

METHOD FOR ADVERTISING USING LOCAL AUCTION OF

FREE GIFT

Technical Field

[1] The present invention relates to a method of advertising by local auctions for gifts. In particular, the invention relates to a method of advertising by local auctions for gifts for efficient advertising within an advertiser's budget limit since he can advertise efficiently and adjust the location or exposure frequencies of his advertising depending on the type and amount of mileage spent for the advertising in order to give a motive for a user to view the advertising by providing mileage according to an amount of a task carried out by a user who viewed the advertising, and by inducing the user to make a bid for gifts provided by the advertiser at an auction with the provided mileage. Background Art

[2] With recent rapid development of networks, e.g., the Internet, actual transactions for many things are increasingly being carried out online, which have conventionally been carried out offline. One example is increasing online advertising in many cases.

[3] Generally, online advertising is a type that, when a potential customer, e.g., an

Internet user, accesses a certain web site, information of the advertising is sent from the web site to a terminal of the user thus to display the contents of the advertising on the screen of the user's terminal in various manners such as banners, pop-up windows, or text and/or image, hyperlinks, etc. on a general web page in order to enable the user to perceive the contents of the advertising.

[4] Another type of online advertising widely used is to collect personal or enterprise web site addresses or blog addresses, e-mail addresses or mobile phone numbers owned by a potential customer, then to post the contents of advertising on the relevant web sites or a visitor's book of a blog or to send the contents by e-mail or text messages, etc.

[5] However, in most cases, the recent online advertising active on the communication networks is substantially recognized that it is not pleasant but annoying information to most of users. Therefore, the users are highly likely to ignore the advertising displayed on the screen of their monitor and the advertising sent by e-mail is actually not read but deleted directly.

[6] Correspondingly, for efficient online advertising, there has been a need that it is necessary to give a motive to users so that they can view advertising actively rather than positively. To meet such a need, there has been proposed a method of providing a given amount of cyber money or gifts for compensation to view advertising when a user submits given answers by clicking an advertising banner or displaying an advertisement-inserted page to view the contents of the advertising. Currently, this method is widely used because it has an advantage to induce users actively to view advertising with a motive to obtain cyber money or gifts.

[7] However, since the mileage provided for viewing advertising is a very small amount as compensation for viewing advertising once and the users have thus to continue to view lots of advertising to accumulate the amount to be usable, the method thus makes users tired. In the method of providing gifts as compensation for 'viewing advertising', since the advertising is randomly provided to users, there would be little effect of advertising if users are more interested in the gifts rather than the contents of advertising. Since gifts are provided to all of the users who view the advertising at a given level, advertisers have to spend quite a lot of money as compensation for the advertising.

[8] In order to improve such a method of providing gifts for online advertising, the

Korea patent application No. 10-2000-63992 entitled "Method of and system for advertising over communication network and for providing gifts", discloses a method of online advertising comprising the steps of checking features of a user with the user's information applied through advertising for providing discount coupons or gifts, selectively providing advertising targeted for the relevant user among various information, selecting, in a manner of lottery winning, a gift winner among users who view the advertising and were confirmed with a question-answer process thus to provide only the winner with gifts. This method aims at target advertising on the basis of user's member information and thus reduces the amount of money spent for gifts by defining gift provision to some of the members who viewed the advertising.

[9] As another example, the Korea patent application No. 10-2000-15840, entitled

"Method of performing an event of providing gifts on the Internet", discloses a method in which a user who is a member accumulates cyber money through various paths, e.g., viewing advertising, point transfer, winning games and the like, which specifies an amount of cyber money to be paid for gift coupons and to apply for each unit gift ticket when a plurality of gift tickets are announced for which tickets the users who satisfy the conditions can apply for a given period of time, and in which the gift tickets are distr

[10] ibuted according to the amount of the cyber money for the unit gift ticket applied after a given period of time. Disclosure of Invention Technical Problem

[11] However, in the aforementioned method of providing gifts by lot as in "Method of performing an event of providing gifts on communication network", there is a limit in inducing users to view advertising only through gifts obtained by the users. It is because user's viewing advertising is highly likely to be a one-time chance for advertising. To improve the disadvantage, an example of accumulating the number of accesses to a relevant web site and thus using the result for selecting gift winners is further disclosed therein, but accuracy of the data for accumulating the number of accesses to the web site is still not guaranteed disadvantageously.

[12] Also, since the cyber money for applying for gift coupons is accumulated in various ways in the "Method of performing an event of providing gifts on the Internet", it is disadvantageous that advertiser's intent is never considered who wants the effect of ads exposure while providing gifts. Although, in this method, there is disclosed a method of providing a given special benefit for the cyber money obtained as compensation for viewing advertising in order to improve the effect of advertising, it is still disadvantageous that the process of viewing advertising for obtaining cyber money is completely separated from the process of applying for winning gifts.

[13] Therefore, in order to improve the effect of online advertising in a manner of providing gifts, there is still a need for a method of advertising in which an advertiser can achieve effective and efficient advertising within his budget limit while giving users a motive to view advertising. Technical Solution

[14] According to the invention, there is provided a method of advertising by a local auction for gifts, comprising the steps of: user's joining a local web site corresponding to his residential area by providing his personal information including his residential address over a network; user's viewing advertising posted by an agent registered in a local web site in user's residential area and carrying out a task associated with the advertising; agent's providing mileage according to the task to a user who carried out the specified task, the agent having posted the advertising; selecting a desired gift given in the local web site with the mileage provided to and accumulated by the user and making a bid in an auction; the corresponding gift being given to a user who made a successful bid at the auction with the most amount of mileage among the users who made a bid at the auction.

[15] It is preferred that the agent provides gifts to a local web site where he joined and receives a given amount of mileage from the local web site depending on the value of the gifts.

[16] It is preferred that at least one of the location, exposure time, and exposure frequency of the advertising is determined depending on at least one of the level or amount of the mileage provided by the agent.

[17] It is preferred that a level of difficulty of the task is given by the agent who posted the corresponding advertising and the user who carried out the task obtains mileage determined depending on the level of the difficulty from the agent.

[18] It is preferred that the local web site is classified into city/regional/district web sites, wide area city/province web sites, and national web sites, which are connected to a main web site, and the mileage consists of a gold talent, a silver talent and a bronze talent, wherein the gold talent is purchased from the main web site and distributed by the wide area city/province web sites and the national web sites which belong to the local web sites, the silver talent is issued and distributed by the city/region/district web sites which belong to the local web site, and the bronze talent is issued and distributed by the local web sites.

[19] It is preferred that the mileage accumulated by the user is exchangeable for cash in the main web site or the local web site according to a predetermined exchange ratio for cash.

Advantageous Effects

[20] With the method of advertising by a local auction for gifts according to the invention, it is advantageous that effective advertising is accomplished by providing mileage determined depending on performance of a task by users who viewed the corresponding adverting, and inducing the users to make a bid at a local auction for given gifts provided by an advertiser with the provided mileage in order to give the users a motive to view advertising.

[21] The invention is also advantageous in that the advertiser can adjust the location or exposure frequency of posting his advertising depending on the type and amount of the mileage needed for the advertising, so that he can efficiently advertise within his budget limit. Brief Description of the Drawings

[22] These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent through the following description, illustrated in the appended drawings. In the drawings:

[23] Fig. 1 shows a schematic configuration of an advertising system by a local auction for gifts according to the invention;

[24] Fig. 2 shows a schematic configuration of the main web site shown in Fig.1 ;

[25] Fig. 3 is a flow chart of the advertising system by a local auction for gifts according to the invention;

[26] Fig. 4 illustrates an example of a web site for operating the advertising system by a local auction for gifts according to the invention;

[27] Fig. 5 illustrates an example in which a user clicked the menu of advertising to obtain mileage from the web site for operating the method of advertising by a local auction for gifts according to the invention; and

[28] Fig. 6 illustrates an example in which a user clicked the menu of an auction for gifts for auction with the mileage on the web site for operating the method of advertising by a local auction for gifts according to the invention.

[29]

[30] * Reference numerals in the figures *

[31] 10: national web site 12, 22, 32: agent's terminal

[32] 20: wide area city/province web site 30: city/region/district web site

[33] 100: main web site 200: network

[34] 300: user's terminal

Mode for the Invention

[35] Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be noted that those drawings are intended for illustration only and the invention is not limited by those drawings.

[36] Fig. 1 shows a schematic configuration of an advertising system by a local auction for gifts according to the invention, and Fig. 2 shows a schematic configuration of the main web site shown in Fig. 1.

[37] Referring to Fig. 1, the advertising system by a local auction for gifts according to the invention consists of a main web site 100, a network 200 and user's terminals 300.

[38] The main web site 100 refers to a web site established in a server of the main office

(not shown), to which a plurality of users have access with their terminal 300 through the network 200 for using various services (contents). Here, the server in a main office in which the main web site 100 is established is arranged with databases (not shown), modules (not shown) and the like so that the advertising system by a local auction for gifts according to the invention can be used therein, but this is well known in the art, and detailed description thereof will not be further provided.

[39] The main web site 100 comprises at least one of local web sites, e.g., a national web site 10, wide area city/province web sites 20 and city/region/district web sites 30. In the invention, however, it is assumed that the main web site 100 comprises all of the national web site 10, wide area city/province web sites 20 and city/region/district web sites 30. The national web site 10 is the highest local web site including the national web sites in many countries in the world as well as Korea. A wide area city/province web site 20 is a higher local web site including web sites of all of wide area cities and provinces in Korea, respectively. A city/region/district web site 30 is the lowest local web site including web sites of wide area cities and cities/regions/districts of a province, respectively. The aforementioned wide area city/province web site 20 and the city/region/district web site 30 are the case that the national web site 10 is of Korea. If the national web site 10 is of Japan or USA, etc., the name may differ depending on the administrative geographical system of the corresponding country.

[40] The aforementioned local web sites, e.g., the national web site 10, the wide area city/ province web site 20 and the city/region/district web site 30 are connected to an advertiser, e.g., agent, who joined the corresponding local site through his terminal, and represent information about gifts and advertising provided by the advertiser. Here, the advertiser can join each of local web site in a desired area for advertising through his terminal. In other words, the advertiser can select one or a plurality of the national web sites 10, the wide area city/province web sites 20 and the city/region/district web sites 30 in order to register him as an agent according to features and his advertising budget limit of advertised goods or services.

[41] The terminal of the advertiser who joined a local web site as described above, e.g., agent's terminals 12, 22, 32, is a means to allow the advertiser to access the main web site 100 through the network as will be further described hereinbelow. The terminal may be any apparatus that can be connected to the Internet, for example, one of personal mobile terminals, e.g., cellular phones, PDA, etc., or personal computers, etc.

[42] If the advertiser wants advertising in a corresponding local web site, he should register him as an agent in the local web site and then obtain mileage through a given agreement. The contents of the agreement may vary with each of the local web site which he wants to join. For example, the advertiser may make an agreement to provide a given number of gifts, e.g., discount tickets or coupons, gifts and the like, every given period of time, to the local web site for registration as an agent and to receive a given amount of mileage from the local web site depending on the value of provided gifts. In addition, the advertiser (agent) may make an agreement to purchase mileage with the amount specified as a given amount per mileage from the corresponding local web site, or to pay a given amount of subscription fee and then receive a given amount of mileage every month or every week.

[43] Thereafter, the advertiser can provide gifts to the corresponding local web site to receive mileage, or can advertise in the local web site with the mileage he purchased from the local web site.

[44] In this case, the advertiser can adjust a level or amount of the mileage he will provide to users in posting advertising. In other words, if the advertiser specifies a high level, a large amount of the mileage or both of them to be provided to users, it is possible to configure that his advertising may be arranged in a location well noticeable, his advertisement may be exposed to users a longer period of time or may be exposed to users more frequently. On the contrary, if he specifies a low level, a small amount of the mileage or both of them, the location, exposure time or exposure frequency of his advertising will be lowered relatively.

[45] Across the network 200, the user's terminal 300 is connected to the main web site

100 and also to the agent's terminal 12, 22, and 32. The network is one of the wired or wireless Internet, Intranet, a telephone network, satellite communication network or mobile network, or a combination of at least two of them, or a network equivalent to them. Herein, it is illustrated and exemplified that the user's terminal 300 is connected to the wired Internet network using WWW (world wide web) among the aforementioned networks.

[46] The user's terminal 300 is similar to the aforementioned agent's terminal 12, 22 and

32. The agent's terminal 12, 22, 32 is a terminal of an advertiser who provides gifts or advertising, but the user's terminal 300 is used for a user to view the advertising provided by the advertiser, to carry out a task according to the advertising and to make a bid at an auction with the provided mileage.

[47] Fig.3 is a flow chart of an advertising system by a local auction for gifts according to the invention.

[48] Referring to Fig.3, the advertising system by a local auction for gifts according to the invention comprises the steps of joining as a member SlO, carrying out a task S20, providing mileage S30, bidding at an auction S40 and making a successful bid S50.

[49] In the step of joining as a member SlO, a user joins the lowest local web site, that is a city/region/district web site 30, which belongs to the local web site corresponding to his residential area over the network 200, by providing his personal information including his address, in particular the essential information of his residential address.

[50] When the user joins the city/region/district web site 30 in the area where he lives, he is automatically a member of the wide area city/province web site 20 to which the corresponding city/region/district belongs and the national web site 10 to which the corresponding wide area city/province belongs.

[51] As such, since the local web site is classified from small areas to wide areas on the basis of user's residential area, the advertiser can post advertising selectively on a local web site where he expects the best advertising effect, considering objects, feature, budget and the like of the advertising.

[52] For example, it would be even more effective that a business man who runs a hair salon, medical clinic, restaurant, etc., in Chuncheon city, Gangwon province, Korea, joins one of a Chuncheon city web site and/or a Gangwon province web site as an agent to advertise his business to users who lives in the area, rather than in Chejoodo or Seoul city, Korea, far from his business area.

[53] However, in the case of an online business site or national or world-wide company, or if there is no need of advertising since a business site is limited to a place which is located, e.g., tourist accommodation business or local specialty sales business, an advertiser will join a city/region/district web site 30 and/or a wide area city/province web site 20 and/or a national web site 10 as an agent, selected considering his advertising budget limit, expected advertising effect, etc.

[54] When a user joins the aforementioned websites as a member, he will be given a right different from that for a general visitor or guest, like a member in a general web site. That is, a personal member web page would be provided or a function for saving advertising as he needs would be provided on the main web site 100.

[55] In the step of carrying out a task S20, the user will view advertising posted by any agent registered in the local web site and carry out a task associated with the advertising. Here, the user registered as a member can view advertising posted by any agents in all of the local web sites, but whether or not he can carry out tasks of the advertising he viewed is determined by his residential area category.

[56] For example, if his residential area belongs to Chuncheon city, Gangwondo province,

Korea, he can view advertising in all local web sites. However, for carrying out tasks, he can carry out only the tasks of advertising posted in the Chuncheon city web sites with respect to the city/region/district web site 30, those posted in the Gangwondo province web sites with respect to the wide area city/province web site 20 and those posted in the Korea web site with respect to the national web site 10. He cannot carry out tasks of advertising in other local web site than those listed above. If a user in other area views the advertisings and wants to carry out tasks associated with them, it is preferred that a phrase of "You cannot carry out tasks of the advertising" is displayed.

[57] The reason of user's carrying out the tasks associated with advertising is to check user's having viewed corresponding advertising and then to provide mileage. The tasks are created to have a different level of difficulty by an agent who posts the advertising. For example, a task is made for a user to visit the agent who posted the corresponding advertisement on line or directly, to purchase goods from the agent concerned, or to submit answers for some questions, quizzes and the like associated with an advertisement he viewed. Here, it is preferred that the questions, quizzes and the like are of a level for which a member can easily find and submit answers.

[58] If the user carried out a task associated with any advertising, it is preferred that it is prevented for him to view the same advertising or carry out the same task again. That is, it is possible to configure an orange frame for advertising to be displayed if a user initially tries to present answers for questions, questionnaires, quizzes and the like associated with the advertising, and the orange frame to change to a gray frame when he completes the process. Here, it is possible to provide a function to set a period of time to allow the user to re-view the advertising so that the gray frame changes to the orange frame again a given period of time after a user viewed an advertising and the user can thus view the advertising again. However, for an advertising for which a user carried out a task thus to obtain mileage, it is preferred that, although it is possible to view the advertising again, it is not allowed to obtain mileage until a given period of time elapses despite of re- viewing the advertising, so that it is hard for a user to obtain mileage repeatedly for one and the same advertising.

[59] In the step of providing mileage S30, an agent who posted the corresponding advertising provides mileage to users who carried out tasks depending on the level of difficulty of the tasks. In the invention, the mileage is configured to have 3 levels. That is, the highest level of mileage corresponds to a gold talent, the intermediate level of mileage to a silver talent and the lowest level of mileage to a bronze talent. The gold, silver and bronze talents are similar to the concept of the gold, silver and bronze medals in the Olympic Games, and used to have a unique value, not convertible each other.

[60] In the aforementioned step S20 of carrying out tasks, the advertising for which the gold talent, the highest level of talents, among the aforementioned levels of mileage, e.g., gold, silver and bronze talents, can be arranged to be positioned at a place which is exposed best to users than advertising for which mileage at another levels is provided.

[61] Optionally, it is preferred to induce that distribution of talents is more actively facilitated by configuring that advertisings for which more amount of talents is provided are positioned at a place which is exposed better to users even for the same level of advertisings, in order for the users to view the advertisings of an agent who provides a higher level or more amount of talents.

[62] To this end, it is preferred to configure that, in order for a user to obtain a gold talent for the mileage provided by carrying out a task, he should carry out a task at a high level in difficulty, or carry out a task after purchasing items of the corresponding agent or viewing a pay-per-view advertising, etc. On the contrary, in the case of the bronze talent, it is preferred to obtain it after carrying out a task at the lowest level in difficulty. For example, if a user visits an agent who posted the corresponding adverting online or directly, or carries out a task by purchasing an item from the agent, the gold talent is provided. Optionally, the invention may be configured that one or both of the silver and bronze talents is/are provided if a user carries out simple tasks associated with the relevant advertising, e.g., by submitting answers for questions, questionnaires, quizzes, etc., associated with the corresponding advertising.

[63] The mileage provided to a user who carried out a task is reduced in the mileage which the agent who posted the relevant advertising, that is an advertiser, possesses. Variations in the mileage which the advertiser possesses may be displayed in real time in the contents of the posted advertising. Meanwhile, optionally for the gold talent provided by visiting a shop of user s agent or purchasing items, the agent may inform variations in the gold talent he posses of the corresponding local web site or the main web site to check the variations in the amount of the gold talent. Accordingly, the agent can see how much his advertising is exposed to users in real time while checking the variations in the gold, silver and bronze talents he owns.

[64] As such, the amount of mileage owned by an agent who posted the corresponding advertising is gradually reduced as users carry out tasks. If mileage cannot be provided any more for user's carrying out tasks for the posted advertising, posting the advertising stops. Here, optionally, if the mileage owned by an agent is below a specified level, the corresponding local web site may inform the agent of the remaining mileage.

[65] The agent should then be provided with mileage from the corresponding local web site so that the advertising posted in the local web site does not stop. The mileage can be filled again by providing a given amount of gifts to the local web site registered as described above, or by paying a given amount of subscription fee to receive mileage weekly or monthly. In this case, optionally, if the gifts are provided to a local web site as vouchers or coupons, they would not be presented at an auction and be made to be searched in categories and addresses. If a user prints out the items, the mileage he owns would be reduced as much as the mileage specified on the vouchers or coupons.

[66] In addition, the gold talent for mileage is issued in the main web site 100 and sold in the wide area city/province web site 20 and the national web site 10. The wide area city/province web site 20 and the national web site 10 sell the gold talent to respective registered agents for distribution. Since the city/region/district web site 30 cannot distribute the gold talent, it will purchase required gold talents directly from the main web site.

[67] The silver talent is issued by the city/region/district web site 30 and a given amount of the silver talent will be provided or sold depending on the value for gifts provided by an agent registered in the city/region/district web site 30 for distribution.

[68] The bronze talent is issued in all of the local web site and a given amount of the bronze talent will be provided or sold depending on the value for gifts provided by an agent registered in the web sites for distribution.

[69] Therefore, the agents under the wide area city/province web site 20 and the national web site 10 provide one or both of the gold and bronze talents when users who viewed their advertising carry out tasks. The agents under the city/region/district web site 30 provides the silver or bronze talent purchased from the city/region/district web site or the gold talent purchased from the main web site for compensation to users who carried out tasks.

[70] A user who has obtained mileage can search for and make a bid at an auction where he can do with his mileage obtained, or can do it later after carrying out more tasks according to advertising to obtain more mileage if the mileage he owns is not sufficient to make a bid at an auction. On the contrary, he can exchange his mileage, especially the gold talent and silver talent he obtained, for cash without making a bid at any auction.

[71] If he wants to exchange the gold talent and silver talents for cash, he can do it on the main web site 100 and the city/region/district web site 30 which issued the gold and silver talents, respectively. The gold talent is a main income source of the main web site 100 and the silver talent is a main income source of the city/region/district web site 30. The wide area city/province web site 20 and the national web site 10 have a main income source of selling the gold talent purchased from the main web site 100 to their agents. Here, the reason that the silver talent should be issued only by the city/ region/district web site 30 is to allow shops in poor financial conditions in the corresponding area to advertise with the silver talent at a small amount, cheaper than the gold talent.

[72] It is preferred that the agents under the city/region/district web site 30 use the silver or bronze talent for advertising and provide the gold talent selectively to members who purchase items.

[73] If a user applies for exchange of his mileage (gold, silver talents) for cash to the main web site 10 or the city/region/district web site 30 that issued the mileage, the exchanged amount may be paid by means of online transfer to a bank account specified by the user or provided as a voucher or item of the same amount as the cash.

[74] As described above, for the advertising posted by an agent, the corresponding agent himself regulates the level, amount, etc. of the mileage for posting the advertisement from the time of posting. Therefore, if he wants many users to view his advertising, he can regulate advertising depending on his advertising budget limit, e.g., higher levels of talent or more amount of talent can be provided, etc.

[75] Meanwhile, the gold and silver talents exchangeable for cash may be donated for charity purpose. It is preferred that, if a user donates a given amount of gold or silver talents from his mileage, he is informed of details of the donation. In this case, for active donation, the main web site 100 and the corresponding city/region/district web site 30 may provide a given amount of bronze talent predetermined per donated gold or silver talent.

[76] In the step of making a bid at an auction S40, a user selects gifts in a desired local web site to utilize the mileage provided to him and accumulated to make a bid for them at an auction.

[77] The gifts at the auction are provided by an agent to a corresponding local web site.

The agent achieves advertising effect by the advertising posted in the local web site and creates another advertising effect by providing gifts for bidding against another users for them at an auction. In this case, it is preferred that the agent posts auction in- formation including the period during which a user can bid at an auction for gifts and the minimum amount of mileage with which he can make a bid in order to induce more users to make a bid at the auction for gifts, the auction being held in each local web site. Here, optionally, it may be configured that users can make a bid against another users at an auction held in most of the local web sites, but cannot make a bid at an auction held in the wide area city web/province web site 20, which belongs to the local web site in other areas. That is, it is configured that only the users of the city/ region/district web site 30 under the corresponding wide area city/province can make a bid against other users at an auction.

[78] Generally, most of the gifts provided to the city/region/district web site 30 for bidding at an auction are in the form of vouchers or coupons of the agents in the local area (e.g., vouchers for hair salons or saunas). Accordingly, it is not highly likely that users in other local web site may make a bid against other users at an auction held in the city/region/district web site 30.

[79] Unlike an auction held in a city/region/district web site 30, it is highly likely that members in other local areas may make a bid against other users at an auction held in a wide area city/province web site 20. Therefore, the gifts presented at an auction held in the wide area city/province web sites 20 are for the members in the city/region/district web site 30 under the wide area city/province web site 20, and it is thus prohibited that members in other local areas make a bid against other users in the corresponding local area at the auction.

[80] If an agent wants advertising by an auction in a country, e.g., all over Korea, he can advertise by providing gifts to the national web site 10. If he wants advertising by an auction in a wide area city/province, he can advertise by providing gifts to the wide area city/province web site 20.

[81] As described above, advertising by an agent is achieved who provides gifts for making a bid at an auction for gifts, and members can make a bid against other users at an auction with the mileage they have and the mileage is gone when they make a successful bid in the corresponding auction, but they are provided with gifts. If they cannot make a successful bid, the mileage remains as it is. Therefore, since users can bid freely against other users at an auction, they are highly interested in auctions to enable effective advertising.

[82] In the step of making a successful bid S50, the corresponding gifts are given to a user who made a bid with the most amount of mileage among the users who made a bid for gifts at the same auction a given period after users bid against other users for gifts. As described above, the accumulated mileage of the user who made a successful bid at the auction is gone as much as he used to make the successful bid. With the mileage (gold, silver, bronze talent) of the user according to the successful bid gone, the web site of having issued the mileage, that is, the main web site 100, or the city/region/district web site 30 makes a profit since it does not need to exchange cash as much as the amount of the mileage gone. On the other hand, the gifts for a successful bid can be provided by mail or the corresponding user (of the successful bid) can visit personally the agent's shop to receive the gifts, or can download and receive the gifts in the case of a computer program provided as a gift. In this case, the step of making a successful bid further comprises a process of informing all the users who made a bid for gifts at the same auction of which user made a bid and what amount of mileage to make a successful bid for the gift.

[83] Hereinafter, the method of advertising for gifts in a local auction according to the invention with the aforementioned configuration will be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[84] Fig.4 illustrates an example of a web site practicing the method of advertising by a local auction for gifts according to the invention. Fig.5 illustrates an example of clicking a menu for advertising to get mileage from a web site operating the method of advertising by a local auction for gifts according to the invention.Fig.βillustrates an example of clicking a menu of an auction for gifts presented at an auction to utilize the mileage on a web site operating the method of advertising by a local auction for gifts according to the invention.

[85] First, as shown in Fig.4, when a user accesses the main web site 100 through his user terminal 300, the initial window of a web site operating the method of advertising by a local auction for gifts according to the invention is displayed.

[86] On the initial window shown, arranged are contents, e.g., agent information in each local site, agent information who provides the gold talent, the talent owned by each agent, adding advertising of interest, recommendation of shops, bulletins of shops, etc.

[87] It is preferred to configure the window to have a function, e.g., 'Search gifts' with which a user can search for shops, or tourist attractions or areas for sightseeing, or search for gifts in each time period as well as contents, e.g., 'to Auction' or 'Coupons' in order to achieve maximum effect of advertising.

[88] Referring to Fig.5, there is shown a window displayed when a user clicks the menu of advertising in order to obtain mileage, in which there are arranged contents, e.g., information about an agent who posted the advertising, and a task to get mileage by carrying out it after viewing the advertising, that is, multiple choice questions to give answers, etc. When a user uses a search category through the information, such as agent's information, e.g., the agent's address, telephone number, etc., the information may be a telephone book on the Internet to enable him to easily find a desired agent.

[89] Fig.6 shows a window displayed when a user makes a bid for gifts, in which there are specified and displayed the minimum amount of mileage to make a bid at an auction, that is the minimum amount of gold talent to make a bid, the minimum amount of silver talent to make a bid at an auction, and the minimum amount of bronze talent to make a bid at an auction. In this case, a user who wants to make a bid at the auction for the corresponding gifts should have more than the minimum amount of gold, silver or bronze talent, respectively, to make a bid as described above. In particular, in the case of the gold talent, it may be difficult to get all of the mileage required only by viewing advertising and then submitting answers. Therefore, visiting agent s shops or purchasing items which is intended by an agent is more naturally induced, the agent having posted the advertising. Also, having the minimum amount of mileage for each level to make a bid at an auction means that a user has to view all the advertisings posted in the corresponding local web site, not only one advertising, and then to carry out tasks. This is advantageous in that users are induced to be exposed to advertisings as many as possible. The operator in the corresponding local web site can specify the minimum amount of mileage to make a bid at an auction or a special auction in which only a specified level of talent can be used. In this case, at an auction in which only a specified level of talent, especially, the bronze talent only, should be used to make a bid, it is possible to dispose the bronze talent which is not allowed to be exchanged or donated.

[90] With the invention as described above, all of the web sites, e.g., the main web site

100 and each of the local web site can have income. For example, the national web site 10 and the wide area city/province web site 20 purchase the gold talent by paying 15 won per one from the main web site 100 and sell each gold talent for 20 won to each agent. Thereafter, users, that is, members in each local web site, view advertising of an agent and then carry out tasks by submitting answers for questions or buying items in order to obtain gold, silver and bronze talents. When the mileage obtained as such is accumulated to be a given amount, the user applies for exchanging the gold talent for cash to the main web site 100 at the ratio of one gold talent to 10 won specified by the main web site 100, and for exchanging the silver talent for cash at the ratio of one silver talent to one won specified by the corresponding city/region/district web site 30. As a result, all of the main web site 100 and the national and wide area city/ region/district web sites 10, 20 have a profit of 5 won, and the city/region/district web site 30 has profits in exchanging the silver talent for cash by regulating the price of the silver talent issued by the city/region/district web site 30.

[91] Also, if a member who lives in Gangnam-gu district of Seoul made a bid at an auction held in the Chuncheon city web site and made a successful bid for gifts with 10 gold talents, 10 silver talents and 100 bronze talents, the Gangnam-gu district web site has a profit by the silver talent gone, which was issued by itself. The main web site also has a profit by the gold talent gone, which was issued by itself. In this case, the Chuncheon city web site provides gifts, but does not have a profit. On the contrary, since members in the Chuncheon city web site can make a bid at an auction held in the Gangnam-gu web site or other local web sites, the gold and silver talents gone by a successful bid for gifts result in profits to all of the web sites.

[92] Furthermore, it was described hereinabove that the mileage, that is, the gold, silver and bronze talents, is not converted each other. Unlike the description in the above, however, the configuration may be modified so that one gold talent may be converted to 10 or 100 silver talents, and one silver talent to 10 or 100 bronze talents.

[93] As described above, one skilled in the art of the invention will understand that the invention may be practiced in another specific form without modifying the technical spirit or essential features thereof.

[94] Therefore, it should be understood that the embodiments described hereinabove are intended to be illustration only and not to limit the invention in all respects. It should be construed that the scope of the invention is represented by the appended claims rather than the above detailed description, and the meaning and the scope of the claims, modifications or variations derived from the equivalent concept thereof are covered in the scope of the invention.

[95] In the present application and claims the word "a"or "an" preceding an element does not exclude the present of a plurality of such elements. Further, the word "comprising" does not exclude the presence of other elements or steps than those listed. The inclusion of reference signs in parentheses in the claims is not intended to aid understanding and is not intended to be limiting.

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[HO]

Claims

[1] A method of advertising by a local auction for gifts, characterized by comprising the steps of: user's joining a local web site corresponding to his residential area by providing his personal information including his residential address over a network; user's viewing advertising posted by an agent registered in a local web site in user's residential area and carrying out a task associated with the advertising; agent's providing mileage according to the task to a user who carried out the specified task, the agent having posted the advertising; selecting a desired gift given in the local web site to use the mileage provided to and accumulated by the user and making a bid at an auction; and the corresponding gift being given to a user who made a successful bid at the auction with the most amount of mileage among the users who made a bid in the same auction.

[2] The method of advertising as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the agent provides gifts to a local web site where he joined and receives a given amount of mileage from the local web site depending on the value of the gifts.

[3] The method of advertising as claimed in claim 2, characterized in that at least one of the location, exposure time, and exposure frequency of the advertising is determined depending on at least one of the level or amount of the mileage provided by the agent.

[4] The method of advertising as claimed in claim 3, characterized in that a level of difficulty of the task is given by the agent who posted the corresponding advertising and the user who carried out the task obtains mileage depending on the level of the difficulty from the agent.

[5] The method of advertising as claimed in any one of the claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the local web site is classified into city/region/district web sites, wide area city/province web sites, and a national web site, which are connected to a main web site, and the mileage consists of a gold talent, a silver talent and a bronze talent, wherein the gold talent is purchased from the main web site and distributed by the wide area city/province web sites and the national web site which belong to the local web site; the silver talent is issued and distributed by the city/region/district web sites which belong to the local web site; and the bronze talent is issued and distributed by the local web sites.

[6] The method of advertising as claimed in claim 5, characterized in that the mileage accumulated by a user is exchangeable for cash in the main web site or the local web site according to a predetermined exchange ratio for cash.