REWARD POPULATION GROUPING

• US 20140257919A1
• Filed: 03/09/2013
• Published: 09/11/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/09/2013
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Forman, George H., Lillibridge, Mark D.
• Application Number:
  US13/791,911
• Publication Number:
  US 20140257919A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7.29
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data

Abstract

An apparatus and method convert user behavior data into rewards. The method and apparatus determine an undiluted reward for a user of a population of users. The method and apparatus divide the population of users into groups. The apparatus and method determine a dilution factor for each of the groups and assign and/or transmit a reward to the user based upon the undiluted reward and the dilution factor for the group to which that user belongs.

Claims

1. A method for converting inputted user behavior data into outputted rewards, the method comprising:

receiving ancillary behavior data for each user of a population of users;

determining an undiluted reward for a user belonging to the population of users based upon the ancillary behavior data;

dividing the population of users into groups;

determining a dilution factor for each of the groups; and

assigning a reward to the user based upon the undiluted reward of the user and the dilution factor of the group to which the user belongs.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein dividing the population of users into groups is based in part upon one of:

suspicion scores or user relationship data.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

assigning a suspicion score to each user of the population of users; and

dividing the population of users into groups based upon the suspicion scores.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

receiving user relationship data for the population of users; and

dividing the population of users into groups based upon the user relationship data.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein assigning of the suspicion scores is based upon at least one suspicion score criteria selected from a group of suspicion score criteria consisting of:

click-through rate, account session length, inter-arrival time of clicks, time of day, category entropy, product purchase conversion rate, and product purchase values.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising notifying the user with information pertaining to the dilution factor of the group that user belongs to.

7. The method of claim 3, wherein the dividing of the population of users into groups based upon the suspicion scores comprises:

ranking the population of users based on the suspicion score of each user; and

dividing the users into the groups based upon the rank of each user.

8. The method of claim 3, wherein the users are assigned to the groups based upon the suspicion scores by dividing the population of users into a number of groups having approximately equal weight, wherein a group'"'"'s weight is determined by its users'"'"' suspicion scores.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising communicating to the user the identities of at least one user that belongs to the same group of the groups as the user and whose behavior caused a worse dilution factor for the user'"'"'s group.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the dilution factor for each of the groups is based upon one of:

the conversion rate to purchase for that group and a spending characteristic of that group.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the ancillary behavior is selected from a group of behaviors consisting of:

watching an ad, visiting a website, viewing a web page, visiting a retail outlet, providing a referral, and agreeing to a temporary subscription.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein dividing the population of users into groups is in part based upon randomization.

13. An apparatus comprising:

a non-transient computer-readable medium containing programming to direct a processing unit to;

determine an undiluted reward for a user of the population of users based upon ancillary behavior data;

divide the population of users into groups;

determine a dilution factor for each of the groups; and

assign a reward to the user based upon the undiluted reward and the dilution factor for the group to which the user belongs.

14. A computerized reward system comprising:

a network interface;

a processing unit in communication with the network interface;

a memory containing instructions for direction of the processing unit, the instructions comprising;

a user data acquisition module to direct the processing unit to acquire user behavior data using the network interface;

a grouping module to direct the processing unit to group users;

a dilution factor module to direct the processing unit to assign a reward dilution factor to each group;

a base reward module to direct the processing unit to determine a base reward for a user based on the acquired user behavior data;

a reward module to direct the processing unit to determine a final reward for the user based upon the base reward for the user and the group to which the user has been assigned; and

a reward distribution module to direct the processing unit to transmit the determined final reward for the user using the network interface.

15. The computerized reward system of claim 14 wherein the grouping module divides the population of users into groups based upon one of:

suspicion scores or user relationship data.