JP5343022B2 - Billing apparatus, billing method and program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve the quality of statistical information while suppressing the amount of information to be collected and costs. <P>SOLUTION: Sexes and ages whose population is smaller than a population threshold are selected based on preliminarily input population pyramid information and population threshold by a necessary profile generation part 52, and this profile is stored in a necessary profile storage part 63 as charging conditions. In this state, when the user ID of an information provider is transferred from an information mediator server ISV, the profile corresponding to the user ID is retrieved from an information provider profile storage part 64, and whether or not this retrieved profile is stored in the necessary profile storage part 63 as charging conditions is determined. As the result of determination, when the profile of the information provider is stored, a charging count value corresponding to the user ID of the information provider is incremented, and the result is transmitted to information reception terminal CT1 to CTm at the end of the month. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&amp;INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a charging apparatus, a charging method, and a program for charging a fee for providing information from an information provider.

  In recent years, a system has been proposed in which life information provided by a large number of information providers is accumulated and statistically processed, and the statistical data is provided to information receivers. By using this system, the information receiver can perform marketing processing based on the provided statistical data.

  By the way, in this type of system, there is a system having a function of calculating and paying a remuneration amount for information provision from an information provider. For example, in Patent Document 1, the number of users of an angle video viewed on the main screen of each multi-angle terminal is totaled, and an edited video is generated by connecting the highest portions of the audience rating based on the tabulated audience rating. In the video distribution system, the user information of the user who viewed with the multi-angle terminal and the viewing record when the edited video generated by the video editing device is viewed by another user are stored, and based on the stored viewing record, A technique for transmitting cashback information to a user of a multi-angle terminal who cooperated when an edited video was generated is described.

JP 2009-207181 A

  However, in the system described in Patent Document 1, a reward is unconditionally paid to a user who cooperates to simply edit a video with a high audience rating. For this reason, if the above conventional technique is applied as it is to a system for statistically processing life information provided by a large number of information providers, a reward is not paid to a minority information provider, and the majority information provider is not paid. Reward will be paid, and the necessary minority information will not be reflected in the statistical information, causing a deterioration in the quality of the statistical information. In addition, a large amount of remuneration is always required because remuneration is paid to the majority of information providers. Furthermore, since a large amount of information is always handled, the load of statistical processing in the processing device increases.

  The present invention has been made paying attention to the above circumstances, and an object thereof is to provide a charging apparatus, a charging method, and a program capable of improving the quality of statistical information while suppressing the amount and cost of information to be collected. There is to do.

In order to achieve the above object, one aspect of the present invention is to collect life information from a plurality of information provider terminals used by an information provider via a communication network and generate the statistical information, and the generated statistics In a charging apparatus or charging method used in a system for transmitting information to an information receiving terminal via the communication network,
The profile of the information provider to be charged is stored as a charging condition, and the profile of the information provider is stored in association with the identification information of the information provider. In this state, when life information is sent from the information provider terminal, identification information of the information provider of the transmission source is acquired, and the information provider information storage is performed based on the acquired identification information. The profile of the information provider of the transmission source is read from the means. The read source information provider profile is checked against the stored charging conditions, and the fee is charged for the sender information provider based on the checking result. It is.

  Therefore, every time life information is sent from the information provider terminal, the profile of the information provider of the transmission source is collated with a profile set in advance as a charging condition, and the information provider of the transmission source is based on the collation result Will be charged. For this reason, for example, if a profile of an information provider having information necessary for improving the quality of statistical information is set as a billing condition, the necessary information is better than the information provider who has already obtained a sufficient amount of information. It is possible to preferentially pay for information provision from information providers who have In this way, it is possible to increase the willingness to provide information from minority information providers rather than the majority information providers. It is possible to generate high-quality statistical information.

Also, according to one aspect of the present invention, when setting the charging conditions, information specifying the profile of the information provider to be charged and the number of people recruited for each profile is received from the information receiving terminal via the communication network. In this state, the number of applicants for each profile is counted in response to applications for information provision cooperation from multiple information providers, and the number of applicants for each profile is counted as the number of applicants for each received profile. Compare. Then, based on the comparison result, a profile in which the number of applicants is less than the number of applicants is selected, and the selected profile is stored as a charging condition .
In this way, a profile in which the number of applicants is smaller than the number of applicants designated by the information receiver is set as a charging condition. For this reason, among the information providers having the profile desired by the information receiver, the reward is paid preferentially for the information provision from the information provider whose profile is smaller than the recruitment number. That is, the information receiver can acquire statistical information based on information provision only for information providers having a desired profile, while suppressing the amount of payment of the reward.

  That is, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a charging apparatus, a charging method, and a program that can improve the quality of statistical information while suppressing the amount and cost of information to be collected.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The schematic block diagram of the information mediation system concerning 1st Embodiment of this invention. The block diagram which shows the structure of the information mediation server concerning 1st Embodiment of this invention, and an accounting server. The flowchart which shows the whole processing procedure and processing content by the accounting server shown in FIG. The flowchart which shows the procedure and process content of a population pyramid setting process among the flowcharts shown in FIG. The flowchart which shows the procedure and processing content of the life information totaling process by the information mediation server shown in FIG. 2, and the flowchart which shows the procedure and processing content of the accounting process by an accounting server. The figure which shows an example of the information memorize | stored in the population pyramid memory | storage part provided in the accounting server shown in FIG. The figure which shows an example of the information memorize | stored in the required profile memory | storage part provided in the accounting server shown in FIG. The figure which shows an example of the information memorize | stored in the required number memory | storage part provided in the accounting server shown in FIG. The figure which shows an example of the information memorize | stored in the information provider profile memory | storage part provided in the accounting server shown in FIG. The block diagram which shows the structure of the information mediation server concerning 2nd Embodiment of this invention, and an accounting server. The block diagram which shows the structure of the information mediation server concerning the 3rd Embodiment of this invention, and an accounting server. The flowchart which shows the whole process sequence and process content by the accounting server shown in FIG. The figure which shows an example of the information memorize | stored in the required information memory | storage part provided in the accounting server shown in FIG. The flowchart which shows the procedure and process content of a profile totaling process among the flowcharts shown in FIG. The figure which shows the 1st example of the required profile information in other embodiment of this invention. The figure which shows the 2nd example of required profile information in other embodiment of this invention. The figure which shows the 3rd example of required profile information in other embodiment of this invention. The figure for demonstrating the 1st Example of the accounting process in other embodiment of this invention. The figure for demonstrating the 2nd Example of the accounting process in other embodiment of this invention. The figure for demonstrating the 3rd Example of the accounting process in other embodiment of this invention.

Embodiments according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
(First embodiment)
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of an information mediation system according to the first embodiment of the present invention.
This information mediation system enables life information to be transmitted from a plurality of information provider terminals UT1 to UTn to an information mediation server ISV via a communication network NW, and from the information mediation server ISV to a plurality of information reception terminals CT1 to CTm. Statistical information can be transmitted via the communication network NW. In addition, a billing server CSV is connected to the information mediation server ISV, and the billing processing for remuneration for the information providing terminals UT1 to UTn is performed by the billing server CSV.

The information providing terminals UT1 to UTn are used by general users who are information providers, and have portable terminals such as mobile phones and PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants), fixed information terminals such as personal computers, and bidirectional communication functions. It is comprised by a television receiver or a set top box.
The information receiving terminals CT1 to CTm are used by manufacturers, sales companies, advertising agencies, and the like who are information receivers, and are constituted by personal computers.

  The communication network NW includes an IP (Internet Protocol) network and an access network for accessing the IP network. As the access network, an optical public communication network, a mobile phone network, a LAN (Local Area Network), a wireless LAN, a CATV (Cable Television) network, or the like is used.

By the way, the information mediation server ISV and the accounting server CSV are configured as follows. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration.
First, the information mediation server ISV is operated, for example, by a communication carrier, and includes an input / output unit 1, a transmission / reception unit 2, and a control unit 3.

  The input / output unit 1 includes an input device including a keyboard and a mouse, a display device such as a display, and a driver that reads information from an external storage medium such as a magnetic disk, an optical disk, or a flash memory, and parameters necessary for billing processing. Used to set input.

  The transmitting / receiving unit 2 performs a charging process between the information providing terminals UT1 to UTn and the information receiving terminals CT1 to CTm according to a communication protocol defined by the communication network NW and a charging server CSV. And a function for transferring information indicating the result of the billing process. For example, TCP / IP (Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol) is used as the communication protocol.

  The control unit 3 includes a central processing unit (CPU), and generates statistical information by aggregating life information transmitted from the information providing terminals UT1 to UTn and received by the transmission / reception unit 2 according to a predetermined rule; And a function of transmitting the generated statistical information to the information receiving terminals CT1 to CTm that desire distribution.

Next, the accounting server CSV includes an interface unit 4, a control unit 5, and a storage unit 6.
The interface unit 4 performs transmission / reception processing of information necessary for charging processing and information indicating the result of charging processing with the information mediation server ISV.

The storage unit 6 includes a population pyramid storage unit 61, a necessary number storage unit 62, a necessary profile storage unit 63, an information provider profile storage unit 64, and a billing information storage unit 65.
The population pyramid storage unit 61 is used to store population pyramid information that is one of the parameters necessary for the billing process.
The necessary number of people storage unit 62 is used to store the upper limit value of the population of the age group by gender, which is another target parameter generation target, which is another parameter necessary for the billing process.
The necessary profile storage unit 63 is used to store a necessary profile of an information provider to be charged.

The information provider profile storage unit 64 stores the identification information (user ID) of the user who has signed a contract as an information provider among the users of the information provider terminals UT1 to UTn and the profile information in association with each other. Used for.
The billing information storage unit 65 is used to store the number of bills associated with the user ID for each user who has signed a contract as an information provider.

  The control unit 5 includes a central processing unit (CPU). As control functions necessary for carrying out the present invention, a parameter setting unit 51, a necessary profile generation unit 52, an information provider profile reception setting unit 53, An ID receiving unit 54, a profile inquiry unit 55, a necessary profile inquiry unit 56, and a billing information generation unit 57 are provided. These control functions are realized by causing the CPU to execute an application program stored in a program memory (not shown).

  In the input / output unit 1 of the information mediation server ISV, the parameter setting unit 51, when the system operator inputs population pyramid information and population upper limit value (population threshold value) by gender and age to be charged, The input population pyramid information and population threshold value are stored in the population pyramid storage unit 61 and the necessary number storage unit 62 of the storage unit 6, respectively.

  The necessary profile generation unit 52 reads out population pyramid information and population threshold values from the population pyramid storage unit 61 and the necessary number of people storage unit 62, respectively, and determines populations by gender and age represented by the read population pyramid information. Compare with the read population threshold. Then, a gender and age whose population is less than the population threshold value is selected, and the selected gender and age are stored in the necessary profile storage unit 63 as a necessary profile representing the charging conditions.

  The information provider profile reception setting unit 53, in the contract stage with the information provider who applied for the recruitment of information provision cooperation, the information provider uses his information provider terminals UT1 to UTn to obtain his user ID and profile. When input, the input user ID and profile are received via the information mediation server ISV and stored in the information provider profile storage unit 64 of the storage unit 6.

  The ID receiving unit 54 performs processing for acquiring the user ID of the information provider of the information providing source from the information mediation server ISV when living information is provided from the information provider terminals UT1 to UTn.

  The profile inquiry unit 55 accesses the information provider profile storage unit 64 by using the user ID of the information provider acquired by the ID reception unit 54 as a key, and thereby the user ID from the information provider profile storage unit 64. The process of reading the profile corresponding to is executed.

  The necessary profile inquiry unit 56 accesses the necessary profile storage unit 63 using the profile of the information provider read from the information provider profile storage unit 64 as a key, and a profile corresponding to the profile of the information provider is obtained. A process of determining whether or not it is stored is executed.

The billing information generation unit 57 executes the following processing.
(1) Based on the determination result by the necessary profile inquiry unit 56, it is determined whether or not it is a charging target, and when it is determined that it is a charging target, the user ID of the information provider stored in the charging information storage unit 65 is Processing to increment the corresponding billing count value.
(2) For each predetermined period, for example, for one month, a reward amount or points corresponding to the charge count value is calculated, and billing information for notifying the calculated reward amount or points is generated. And the process which transmits this produced | generated charging information to the information receiving terminal via the information mediation server ISV.

Next, the operation of the accounting server CSV configured as described above will be described. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the overall processing procedure and processing contents.
The billing server CSV first activates the parameter setting unit 51 and the necessary profile generation unit 52 in step S31, and performs the setting process of the population pyramid and the population threshold under the control of the parameter setting unit 51 and the necessary profile generation unit 52. Do. Next, in step S32, the information provider profile reception setting unit 53 is activated, and a contract acceptance process from the information provider is executed under the control of the information provider profile reception setting unit 53. Finally, in step S33, the ID reception unit 54, the profile inquiry unit 55, the necessary profile inquiry unit 56, and the billing information generation unit 57 are activated, and billing processing is executed under these controls.

(1) Population pyramid and population threshold setting processing
FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the setting procedure and processing contents of the population pyramid and population threshold.
First, the parameter setting unit 51 takes in the population pyramid information input by the system operator through the input / output unit 1 of the information mediation server ISV in step S41 via the interface unit 4. Then, the acquired population pyramid information is stored in the population pyramid storage unit 61 of the storage unit 6. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of population pyramid information stored in the population pyramid storage unit 61. The population pyramid information is input by reading information from an external storage medium or by downloading information from a website such as a government agency.

  Subsequently, the parameter setting unit 51 sets the population threshold value input by the system operator by the input / output unit 1 of the information mediation server ISV in step S42, that is, the population upper limit (required number of people) by gender and age to be charged. , Via the interface unit 4. Then, the acquired population threshold value is stored in the necessary number storage unit 62 of the storage unit 6. FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of the population threshold value stored in the necessary number storage unit 62.

  Next, the necessary profile generation unit 52 reads out population pyramid information and a population threshold value from the population pyramid storage unit 61 and the necessary number of people storage unit 62, respectively, in step S43. Then, the gender-specific and age-specific populations represented by the read population pyramid information are compared with the read population threshold values, and the gender and age whose population is less than the population threshold values are selected. Then, the selected gender and age are stored in the necessary profile storage unit 63 as a necessary profile representing the charging condition.

  For example, if the information shown in FIG. 6 is stored as the population pyramid information and “1.2 million” is stored as the required number of people as shown in FIG. 8, the population of “1.2 million people” is included in the population pyramid information. Profiles less than “”, that is, “10's female”, “10's male”, “20's female” and “20's male” are selected and stored in the necessary profile storage unit 63. FIG. 7 shows the necessary profiles stored in the necessary profile storage unit 63.

(2) Information Provider Contract Acceptance Processing Information provider profile reception setting unit 53 first transmits and displays contract screen data to terminals UT1 to UTn of information providers who applied for recruitment of information provision cooperation. In this contract screen, when the information provider inputs his / her user ID and profile by, for example, a key operation, the input user ID and profile are transferred to the billing server CSV via the information mediation server ISV. The information provider profile reception setting unit 53 stores the transferred user ID and profile in the information provider profile storage unit 64. FIG. 9 shows an example of information provider profile information stored in the information provider profile storage unit 64.

(3) Billing Process FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the procedure for receiving and summarizing the provided information by the information mediation server ISV, and the billing process and processing contents by the billing server CSV.
When the information provider terminals UT1 to UTn transmit life information, for example, information representing a viewing history of a television program, the life information is received by the transmission / reception unit 2 of the information mediation server ISV via the communication network NW. The life information is given a user ID of the information provider and time stamp information indicating the transmission time.

  The control unit 3 of the information mediation server ISV captures all the life information received by the transmission / reception unit 2 in step S51, and totals the captured life information in step S52. For example, if the life information is information representing the viewing history of a television program, the audience rating is calculated for each program. In step S53, the information representing the calculated total result is transmitted to information receiving terminals CT1 to CTm set in advance as information receivers. When the transmission of the counting results is completed, the process proceeds to step S54, and the received life information or the user ID assigned to each life information used for counting is transferred to the billing server CSV as a user list. To do.

On the other hand, the billing server CSV executes billing processing as follows.
That is, in the accounting server CSV, first, the ID receiving unit 54 receives the user list in step S55. Subsequently, in step S56, the profile inquiry unit 55 accesses the information provider profile storage unit 64 using each user ID included in the received user list as a key. For each user ID, the corresponding profile is read out. Next, in step S57, the necessary profile inquiry unit 56 accesses the necessary profile storage unit 63 using the profile read from the information provider profile storage unit 64 as a key, and corresponds to the profile of the information provider. It is determined in step S58 whether or not the profile is stored as a charging condition.

  If the profile corresponding to the profile of the information provider is stored as a result of the determination, the billing information generation unit 57 determines that the information provider is a billing target. In step S59, the accounting count value stored in the accounting information storage unit 65 is incremented in association with the user ID of the information provider.

  For example, if the profile of the information provider is “teen female”, the required profile storage unit 63 stores this “teen female” as illustrated in FIG. Judged to be charged. Then, the billing count value stored in the billing information storage unit 65 in association with the user ID of the information provider is incremented.

  When the billing process ends, the billing information generation unit 57 determines in step S60 whether today is the end of the month. If not the end of the month, the billing information generation unit 57 returns to step S55 to receive the above user ID and increment the billing count value. Repeat a series of processes. At the end of the month, the billing count value stored in the billing information storage unit 65 is read out in step S61, and the reward amount or points are calculated based on the read billing count value. Then, billing information for notifying the calculated reward amount or points is generated, and the generated billing information is transferred to the information mediation server ISV. The information mediation server ISV transmits the transferred billing information to the information receiving terminals CT1 to CTm.

Finally, in step S62, the billing information generating unit 57 clears the billing count value of the information provider who transmitted the billing information to “0”.
On the other hand, if a profile corresponding to the profile of the information provider is not stored as a result of the determination, it is determined that the information provider is not a charging target person, and the step without performing the charging process in step S59 is performed. The process proceeds to the end of month determination in S60.

  When the information receiving terminals CT1 to CTm receive the billing information, the information receiving terminals CT1 to CTm transmit remuneration payment instruction information for the information provider to the information mediation server ISV based on the billing information. Upon receipt of the payment instruction information, the information intermediary server ISV executes processing such as adding points of the corresponding information providing terminal according to the instruction information or transferring consideration to the account, and sends the result to the information providing terminal. Notice. An information transfer path for payment of the reward is shown by a broken line in FIG.

  As described above in detail, in the first embodiment, the necessary profile generation unit 52 selects a gender and age whose population is less than the population threshold based on the population pyramid information and population threshold input in advance. This profile is stored in the required profile storage unit 63 as a charging condition. In this state, when the user ID of the information provider is transferred from the information mediation server ISV, first, a profile corresponding to the user ID is searched from the information provider profile storage unit 64, and then the searched profile is charged. It is determined whether it is stored in the necessary profile storage unit 63 as a condition. As a result of the determination, if the profile of the information provider is stored, the billing count value corresponding to the user ID of the information provider is incremented, and the result is transmitted to the information receiving terminals CT1 to CTm at the end of the month. I have to.

  Therefore, every time life information is provided from the information provider terminals UT1 to UTn, the profile of the information provider of the transmission source is collated with the profile set as the charging condition, and based on the collation result, Charges are made to the information provider. For this reason, for example, if a profile of an information provider having information necessary for improving the quality of statistical information is set as a billing condition, the necessary information is better than the information provider who has already obtained a sufficient amount of information. It is possible to preferentially pay for information provision from information providers who have For example, by giving a relatively small value as a population threshold, for example, people who were born in 1965 (noon) and paid a priority for providing information from people of a small age It becomes possible.

(Second Embodiment)
In the second embodiment of the present invention, when setting the charging condition, information specifying the profile of the information provider to be charged is received from the information receiving terminal, and specified by the information according to the received information. Are stored as billing conditions and used.

  FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the information mediating server ISV and the accounting server CSV according to the second embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, the same parts as those in FIG.

  The storage unit 6 of the charging server CSV is provided with a necessary profile storage unit 63, an information provider profile storage unit 64, and a charging information storage unit 65. In addition to the information provider profile reception setting unit 53, the ID reception unit 54, the profile inquiry unit 55, the necessary profile inquiry unit 56, and the billing information generation unit 57, the control unit 5 newly includes a necessary profile reception setting unit 58. Yes. These processing functions are realized by causing the CPU to execute an application program as in the first embodiment.

  The necessary profile reception setting unit 58 receives the billing condition setting information transmitted from the information receiving terminals CT1 to CTm via the information mediation server ISV, and the profile included in the received setting information is stored in the necessary profile storage unit 63. Execute the process stored in. The charging condition setting information includes, for example, a profile designated by the information recipient as a charging target, for example, a profile represented by age and gender.

  Since it is such a configuration, when a profile expressed by age and gender specified by the operator as a billing target in the information receiving terminals CT1 to CTm is input, the setting including the profile input from the information receiving terminals CT1 to CTm Information is transmitted to the information mediation server ISV. When receiving the setting information, the control unit 3 of the information mediation server ISV transfers the setting information to the charging device CSV.

When the setting information is transferred from the information mediation server ISV, the required profile reception setting unit 58 of the charging device CSV stores the profile included in the setting information in the required profile storage unit 63 as a charging condition. The profile stored at this time is also expressed by age and gender as shown in FIG.
The information provider contract acceptance process and the billing process are performed in the same manner as in the first embodiment.

  Therefore, according to the second embodiment, the profile to be charged from the information receiving terminals CT1 to CTm is set in the charging apparatus CSV as the charging condition, so that the profile of the information provider who has the necessary information is obtained. The information receiver can arbitrarily set it from his / her terminal.

(Third embodiment)
In the third embodiment of the present invention, when setting the charging condition, information specifying the profile of the information provider to be charged and the number of people recruited for each profile is received and stored from the information receiving terminal. In this state, based on the information stored in the information provider profile storage unit, the number of information providing applicants for each profile is counted, and the number of applicants for each counted profile is recruited for each received profile. Compare with the number of people. Then, based on the comparison result, a profile in which the number of applicants is less than the number of applicants is selected, and the selected profile is stored as a charging condition.

  FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing configurations of an information mediation server ISV and a billing server CSV according to the third embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, the same parts as those in FIG.

  The storage unit 6 of the accounting server CSV is provided with a necessary information storage unit 66 in addition to the necessary profile storage unit 63, the information provider profile storage unit 64, and the accounting information storage unit 65. The necessary information storage unit 66 is used to store information specifying the profile of the information provider to be charged and the number of people recruited for each profile sent from the information receiving terminals CT1 to CTm.

  In addition to the information provider profile reception setting unit 53, the ID reception unit 54, the profile inquiry unit 55, the necessary profile inquiry unit 56, and the charging information generation unit 57, the control unit 5 of the accounting server CSV includes the necessary information reception setting unit 59. And a necessary profile generator 52 '. These processing functions are realized by causing the CPU to execute an application program as in the first embodiment.

  The necessary information reception setting unit 59 receives the necessary information on the accounting conditions transmitted from the information receiving terminals CT1 to CTm via the information mediation server ISV, and stores the received necessary information in the necessary information storage unit 66. Execute. The necessary information includes information that specifies the profile of the information provider to be charged and the number of recruiters for each profile.

  The necessary profile generation unit 52 ′ counts the number of information provision applicants for each profile based on the information stored in the information provider profile storage unit 64, and the number of applicants for each profile is counted as the necessary information. It compares with the recruitment number for every profile memorize | stored in the memory | storage part 66. FIG. Then, based on the comparison result, a profile in which the number of applicants is less than the number of applicants is selected, and a process of storing the selected profile in the required profile storage unit 63 as a charging condition is executed.

Next, the operation of the accounting server CSV configured as described above will be described. FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing the processing procedure and processing contents.
The billing server CSV first activates the necessary information setting unit 59 in step S121, and under the control of the necessary information setting unit 59, the billing conditions transmitted from the information receiving terminals CT1 to CTm via the information mediation server ISV. Necessary information, that is, information specifying the profile of the information provider to be charged and the number of people recruited for each profile are stored in the necessary information storage unit 66. FIG. 13 shows an example of necessary information stored in the necessary information storage unit 66.

  Next, in step S122, the information provider profile reception setting unit 53 is activated, and a contract acceptance process from the information provider is executed under the control of the information provider profile reception setting unit 53. Subsequently, in step S123, the necessary profile generation unit 52 'is activated, the profile aggregation process is performed under the control of the necessary profile generation unit 52', and the profile to be charged generated by the aggregation process is set as the charging condition. Stored in the necessary profile storage unit 63. Finally, in step S33, the ID receiving unit 54, the profile inquiry unit 55, the necessary profile inquiry unit 56, and the billing information generation unit 57 are activated, and billing processing is executed under these controls.

Incidentally, the necessary profile generation unit 52 'performs the following profile tabulation process. FIG. 14 is a flowchart showing the processing procedure and processing contents.
The necessary profile generation unit 52 ′ first reads out the stored information from the information provider profile storage unit 64 in step S141. In step S142, the number of information providers by profile, that is, the number of information providing applicants is counted. Next, in step S143, information representing the number of recruitment persons by profile is read from the necessary information storage unit 66, and the counted number of information providing applicants is compared with the read recruitment number for each profile.

  Based on the comparison result, the presence / absence of a profile in which the number of applicants is smaller than the number of applicants is determined in step S144. If a profile is found in which the number of applicants is less than the number of applicants, this profile is selected in step S145 and stored in the required profile storage unit 63 as a charging condition.

  For example, it is assumed that 200,000 people and 300,000 people are stored in the necessary information storage unit 66 as the recruitment numbers of women in their 20s and women in their 30s as shown in FIG. In the contract stage, 150,000 and 250,000 people from women in their 20s and 30s, respectively, applied for recruitment of information provision cooperation. Then, in this case, women in their 20s and women in their 30s are selected as profiles and stored in the necessary profile storage unit 63 (step S145).

Finally, in step S146, it is determined whether or not the processes in steps S143 to S145 have been completed for all profiles stored in the necessary information storage unit 66. If not completed, the process returns to step S145 to repeat the above processes. . Then, when the processes for all profiles are completed, the necessary profile generation process is terminated.
In the subsequent billing process, the procedure and contents described in the first embodiment are performed.

  Therefore, according to the third embodiment, a profile having a smaller number of applicants than the recruitment number specified by the information receiver is set as the charging condition. For this reason, among the information providers having the profile desired by the information receiver, the reward is paid preferentially for the information provision from the information provider whose profile is smaller than the recruitment number. That is, the information receiver can acquire statistical information based on information provision only for information providers having a desired profile, while suppressing the amount of payment of the reward.

(Other embodiments)
In each of the above-described embodiments, the case where a combination of “age” and “gender” is set as necessary profile information has been described as an example. However, as illustrated in FIGS. 15A and 15B, “ “Gender” and “Year” may be set independently. Further, not only “age” and “gender”, but also a combination of “address” and “gender” may be set as illustrated in FIG.

  Further, in the required profile storage unit 63 of the accounting server CSV, for example, as shown in FIG. 17, the ID of the information receiver is stored in association with the required profile, and for each required profile based on the ID of the information receiver. Remuneration paid to the information provider may be apportioned by the information receiver. FIG. 17 illustrates a case where company A bears the full amount of remuneration paid to female teenagers, and the remuneration paid to male teenagers is shared between company A and company B.

In addition, as a method of determining the amount of payment of remuneration, the amount of payment is changed depending on the required amount or the degree to which the information provider having the required profile is paid. Things can be considered.
FIG. 18 shows a first example, which pays an amount proportional to the shortage of the number of applicants (number of people according to the contract) with respect to the number of applicants (number of contractors required). If the number of applicants is greater than the number of applicants, no compensation will be paid.
FIG. 19 shows a second example, which pays an amount proportional to (shortage rate = 1−current number of contractors ÷ necessary number of people).
FIG. 20 shows a third example, in which a payment amount is determined for each contracted number of contractors.

  In each of the above-described embodiments, charging is performed when the profile of the information provider matches the required profile set as the charging condition, and charging is not performed when the profile does not match. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and a smaller reward may be paid when the profiles do not match than when they match.

  Furthermore, in the above embodiment, the case where the information mediation server ISV and the accounting server CSV are separately provided has been described as an example. However, the information mediation server ISV and the accounting server CSV may be accommodated in the same server. In addition, the types of information provider terminals and information receiving terminals, the configuration of the information intermediary device and the charging device, the processing procedure and processing contents, the configuration of the charging conditions, and the like can be variously modified without departing from the gist of the present invention. It can be implemented.

  In short, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments as they are, and can be embodied by modifying the components without departing from the scope of the invention in the implementation stage. Moreover, various inventions can be formed by appropriately combining a plurality of constituent elements disclosed in the above embodiments. For example, some components may be deleted from all the components shown in each embodiment. Furthermore, you may combine suitably the component covering different embodiment.

  UT1 to UTn ... information provider terminal, CT1 to CTm ... information receiving terminal, ISV ... information mediation server, CSV ... billing server, NW ... communication network, 1 ... input / output unit, 2 ... transmission / reception unit, 3 ... control unit, 4 ... interface unit, 5 ... control unit, 6 ... storage unit, 51 ... parameter setting unit, 52, 52 '... required profile generation unit, 53 ... information provider profile reception setting unit, 54 ... ID reception unit, 55 ... information provision Person profile inquiry part 56 ... Necessary profile inquiry part 57 ... Billing information generation part 58 ... Necessary profile reception setting part 59 ... Necessary information reception setting part 61 ... Population pyramid storage part 62 ... Necessary number person storage part 63 ... Necessary profile storage unit, 64 ... Information provider profile storage unit, 65 ... Billing information storage unit, 66 ... Necessary Information storage unit.

Claims (3)

A system for collecting life information from a plurality of information provider terminals used by an information provider via a communication network, generating statistical information thereof, and transmitting the generated statistical information to an information receiving terminal via the communication network A billing device used,
Charging condition storage means for storing the profile of the information provider to be charged as a charging condition;
Information provider information storage means for storing the profile of the information provider in association with the identification information of the information provider;
When life information is sent from the information provider terminal, identification information of the information provider of the transmission source is acquired, and the transmission source is stored from the information provider information storage unit based on the acquired identification information. A means of retrieving the profile of the information provider of
A means for collating the read information provider profile of the sender with the stored accounting condition, and performing a fee accounting process for the sender information provider based on the verification result ;
The billing condition storage means includes
Means for receiving, from the information receiving terminal, information specifying the profile of the information provider to be charged and the number of people recruited for each profile via the communication network;
Means for counting the number of applicants for each profile according to the application for information provision cooperation from the plurality of information providers, and comparing the counted number of applicants for each profile with the number of applicants for each received profile When,
Means for selecting a profile in which the number of applicants is less than the number of applicants based on the comparison result, and storing the selected profile as a charging condition;
Charging apparatus according to claim Rukoto equipped with. A system for collecting life information from a plurality of information provider terminals used by an information provider via a communication network, generating statistical information thereof, and transmitting the generated statistical information to an information receiving terminal via the communication network The billing method used,
A charging condition storage process for storing a profile of an information provider to be charged as a charging condition;
Associating the information provider's profile with the information provider's identification information and storing it as information provider information;
When life information is sent from the information provider terminal, identification information of the information provider of the transmission source is acquired, and the information of the transmission source is acquired from the information provider information based on the acquired identification information. The process of obtaining the provider's profile;
Checking the acquired information provider profile of the sender with the stored accounting conditions, and performing a fee accounting process for the sender information provider based on the verification result ,
The billing condition storage process includes:
Receiving from the information receiving terminal information specifying the profile of the information provider to be charged and the number of recruiters for each profile via the communication network;
A process of counting the number of applicants for each profile according to the information provision cooperation application from the plurality of information providers, and comparing the counted number of applicants for each profile with the number of applicants for each received profile. When,
Selecting a profile whose number of applicants is less than the number of applicants based on the comparison result, and storing the selected profile as a charging condition;
Charging wherein the Rukoto equipped with. A program for causing a processor included in the charging apparatus to execute processing corresponding to each unit included in the charging apparatus according to claim 1 .

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