Method of advertising and conducting electronic commercial transactions through a communication network

• US 20020099564A1
• Filed: 01/18/2002
• Published: 07/25/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 01/19/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Kim, Sang Bum, Shin, Yong Soo
• Granted Patent: US 7,318,036 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/1.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0231 Awarding of a frequent usage incentive independent of the monetary value of a good or service purchased, or distance travelled
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0239 Online discounts or incentives
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0242 Determining effectiveness of advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method of discounting a multi-media content item, which is to be sold at a purchase request through a communication network, such as the Internet. The discount is offered in proportion to the number of advertisement (ad) items chosen by a buyer to be added to the multi-media content item. With this method, a multi-media content to be sold and at least one ad content are selected individually through the communication network. The multi-media content and the ad contents are combined with each other, and the price of the combined content is discounted based on how many ad contents are added to the multi-media content. Accordingly, this method can induce increased sales of multi-media contents by discounting goods sold in connection with ads. Additionally, this method helps guarantee the effectiveness of ads by reproducing the ads together with the multi-media content whenever the multi-media content is played back.

Claims

1. A method of conducting electronic commercial transactions through a communication network, comprising:

(a) selecting a first content to buy through the communication network;

(b) selecting at least one second content having an effect of information conveyance;

(c) combining the first content and the second content into a third content; and

(d) determining a price of the third content based on the first and the second content.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each second content comprises advertising materials.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein step (c) adds the second content to at least one of the front, middle, and rear of the first content.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein each second content is converted to the format of the first content, before the combination.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the price of the third content is determined based on a number of second contents combined with the first content or each value of the second contents.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the price of the third content is reduced in proportion to the number of second contents combined to the first content.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein each second content includes a list of other contents to be sold or address information of other servers providing on-line sale services.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the third content is stored in a recording medium to be delivered to a buyer.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the recording medium is one of a CD, a DVD, an FDD, an HDD, and a memory.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the third content is transmitted on-line through the communication network.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the third content is formatted as MPEG data.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the second content is inserted in a prescribed field, defined in the first content, without any data conversion.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the second content selected in step (b) is selected by a buyer or a seller of the first content.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second contents are combined such that the play back of the first content cannot be obtained without the playback of the second content.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the question concerns at least one of a good'"'"'s name and an advertising company related to the presented advertisement.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the selected advertisement is embedded into a multi-media content item purchased by the user.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein a purchase price of the multi-media content item is at least one of reduced and partially refunded if it is determined that the user has viewed the presented advertisement.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein each second content comprises advertising materials.

21. The method of claim 19, further comprising combining the first content and the second content to form a third content.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the first and second contents are integrally combined into the third content and the first content cannot be played back from the third content without the playback of the second content.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the at least one selected advertisement item and the at least one multi-media content item are integrally combined into a compilation, and the at least one multi-media content item cannot be played back from the compilation without the playback of the at least one selected advertisement item.

15. A method of advertising and conducting electronic commercial transactions through a communication network, comprising:

(a) selecting an advertisement;

(b) presenting the selected advertisement to a user;

(c) asking a question about the content of the presented advertisement;

(d) receiving a reply to the question from the user; and

(e) determining whether the user has viewed the presented advertisement based on the information contained in the received reply.

19. A method of conducting electronic commercial transactions through a communication network, comprising:

(a) selecting a first content having a first price to buy through the communication network;

(b) selecting at least one second content;

(c) presenting the selected second content to a user and asking a question about the presented second content;

(d) receiving a reply to the question from the user and determining whether the user has viewed the presented second content, based on the information contained in the received reply; and

(e) determining a second price of the first content based on the first price of the first content and the number of second contents selected.

23. A method of purchasing multi-media content over a communications network, comprising:

selecting at least one multi-media content item for purchase at a first prescribed price, from among a plurality of multi-media content items;

selecting at least one advertisement item having a prescribed value, from among a plurality of advertisement items;

combining a content of the at least one selected advertisement item with a content of the at least one multi-media content item; and

determining a final purchase price by reducing the first prescribed price for the at least one multi-media content item by the prescribed value of the at least one advertisement item.