VIRTUALIZING CONSUMER BEHAVIOR AS A FINANCIAL INSTRUMENT

• US 20080154741A1
• Filed: 06/20/2007
• Published: 06/26/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Flake, Gary W., Gounares, Alexander G.
• Granted Patent: US 8,271,310 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/26
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0215 Including financial accounts
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]

Abstract

The claimed subject matter relates to an architecture that can characterize an item involved in a consumer transaction and/or a behavior of a consumer as a virtual financial instrument. The architecture can monitor the future performance of the virtual instrument in order to identify trendspotters as well as trend followers in a particular market domain.

Claims

1. A computer-implement system that characterizes an item involved in a consumer transaction as a virtual financial instrument, comprising:

an acquisition component that obtains transaction data related to an item involved in a consumer transaction, and further obtains trend data associated with the item; and

a valuation component that assigns a virtual price to the item, the virtual price is a function of the trend data.

2. The system of claim 1, the item is a good or service for which sales of the item are substantially impacted by non-seasonal or non-cyclical sales trends.

3. The system of claim 1, the consumer transaction is a purchase of the item.

4. The system of claim 1, the consumer transaction is a rating of the item.

5. The system of claim 1, the transaction data includes a type of consumer transaction.

6. The system of claim 1, the transaction data includes at least one of a unique identifier associated with a consumer involved in the transaction, a time stamp of a time of the consumer transaction, an indication of whether the item meets with approval, a prediction of future commercial success of the item, or a price paid for the item.

7. The system of claim 1, the trend data includes a sales history of the item.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising a broker component that issues a virtual share of the item at the virtual price to an account associated with a consumer involved in the transaction.

9. The system of claim 8, the broker component defines the virtual share as either a virtual buy or a virtual short based upon at least one of the transaction data or the trend data.

10. The system of claim 8, further comprising a portfolio component that classifies a virtual share into one or more markets and that creates a virtual portfolio for each market, the virtual portfolio includes all virtual shares for a particular market.

11. The system of claim 10, the portfolio component periodically receives virtual price updates from the valuation component and tracks a performance of the virtual portfolio.

12. The system of claim 11, the portfolio component identifies the consumer as a trendspotter for the particular market based upon the performance.

13. The system of claim 12, the broker component issues a virtual dividend to the account associated with a trendspotter.

14. The system of claim 13, the virtual dividend is a function of the performance.

15. The system of claim 13, the virtual dividend is issued in exchange for a new consumer transaction.

16. The system of claim 13, the virtual dividend is a discount, a subsidy, a rebate, or a monetary reward.

17. A method for characterizing consumer transaction information as a virtual financial instrument, comprising:

obtaining transaction information relating to a purchase or a rating of an item by a consumer;

receiving a sales history pertaining to the item; and

determining a virtual price for the item based upon the sales history.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising at least one of the following acts:

associating the consumer with an account;

storing the transaction information to the account;

issuing a virtual share for each respective purchase or rating in the account;

valuing the virtual share at the virtual price;

classifying each virtual share in the account into a respective market;

or

aggregating virtual shares for each market into a respective virtual portfolio.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising at least one of the following acts:

assessing a performance of each respective virtual portfolio;

identifying the consumer as a trendspotter for a particular market based upon the performance of an associated virtual portfolio;

encouraging the trendspotter to engage in additional transactions;

or

allocating resources relating to sale or marketing to the item associated with the additional transactions.

20. A system that characterizes an item involved in a consumer transaction as a virtual financial instrument, comprising:

means for receiving transaction information pertaining to a purchase or a rating of an item by a consumer;

means for obtaining a sales history pertaining to the item; and

means for utilizing the sales history for assigning a virtual price to the item.