Web-based prediction marketplace

Details Web-based prediction marketplace Web-based prediction marketplace

1999-03-05

2001-07-10

Voeltz, Emanuel Todd (Department: 2761)

Data processing: financial, business practice, management, or co

Automated electrical financial or business practice or...

C705S012000, C463S040000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06260019

ABSTRACT:

RELATED APPLICATIONS
There are no related applications.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to an electronic network-based marketplace for supplying and consuming predictions of future events. More particularly, it is directed to a marketplace in which suppliers are compensated based on the number of consumers who view their predictions.
2. Background of the Invention
The internet, also called the world wide web, or simply, the “web”, has been increasingly used as a means of communication in recent years. One area in which the web has found particular use is electronic commerce whereby goods and services provided by a supplier are made available for sale to a consumer. As seen in
FIG. 1
, the web
100
serves as the communication means between consumers
102
and suppliers
104
, each of which is represented as a computer connected to the web. A consumer and a supplier can communicate directly with one another across the web if one knows the other's e-mail address, or web-site URL, and this type of information can often be found by using well-known internet search engines available to either via their internet service provider.
As an alternative to direct communication between a consumer
102
and a supplier
104
, one may instead use a facilitator
106
, represented by a computer in FIG.
1
. The facilitator's web-site serves as a depository of information concerning the goods and/or services offered by a number of suppliers. Consumers can visit the facilitator's website and browse through one or more categories of good and/or services to view the offerings of various suppliers. After viewing these, a consumers may then request more information about a particular item or service, or may even purchase the goods and/or services. This can be done by either directly contacting the supplier, if the facilitator so permits, or by contacting the supplier via the facilitator, with the facilitator acting as an intermediary. The facilitator may charge either the customer, the supplier, or both, for introducing one to the other, either on a subscription basis, a per-introduction basis, a per-completed transaction, a sales-volume basis, or in accordance with some other agreed-upon arrangement with the supplier and/or buyer. Thus, items as collectibles, airline tickets and a host of other goods and services can be obtained, either at a fixed price, or by auctions and even reverse-auctions, all via a facilitator.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is directed to a marketplace for information provided by a plurality of suppliers for display on a facilitator's web-site. The information resides in a relational database on the facilitator's web-site and can be selectively viewed by a consumer without having to jump to a supplier's web-site. A supplier is compensated based on the number of times that that supplier's information is viewed by consumers. In the preferred embodiment, the type of information supplied by the suppliers are predictions about future events, and consumers view these predictions.
In one embodiment, a consumer is charged by the facilitator for viewing a supplier's information, and a portion of the payment collected from that consumer is then passed on to the supplier as compensation. For this, the consumer must first provide the facilitator with billing information to establish some form of electronic collection scheme so as to permit the facilitator to charge the consumer for each access to information.
In another embodiment, consumers are charged nothing for viewing a supplier's information. Revenue to pay the suppliers comes from advertisers, whose advertisements are displayed while a user is logged into the system. Because the consumers are charged nothing in this embodiment, the invention also contemplates preventing a supplier from benefitting from friends (or themselves) repeatedly viewing the same information provided by a supplier simply for the purpose of boosting the amount of compensation made to that supplier. This is done by crediting a supplier only if a particular consumer has not previously viewed that particular piece of information. For this, the facilitator keeps track of what all items a particular consumer has previously viewed for which the seller has already been credited.


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