Method and system for providing market analysis for wireless data markets

• US 7,987,123 B1
• Filed: 04/03/2007
• Issued: 07/26/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/03/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Original Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Inventors: Gaffney, Tamara, Kim-Brown, Stuart
• Primary Examiner(s): Gart; Matthew S
• Assistant Examiner(s): PARIKH, HARSHAD R
• Application Number:
  US11/732,613
• Time in Patent Office: 1,575 Days
• Field of Search: 705/34, 705/8, 705/10
• US Class Current: 705/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/00 Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication ; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless communications, e.g. VoIP
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/58 based on statistics of usage or network monitoring

Abstract

A computer-implemented method and computer system for analyzing a wireless data market. Embodiments provide convenient and effective mechanisms for collecting, processing and classifying wireless data information, which may then be output to provide market analysis for wireless data markets. The wireless data information may be obtained from online bills of a panel of wireless subscribers, thereby reducing subscriber interaction and enabling more complete and frequent access to the wireless data information. Once the wireless data information is obtained, it may be standardized, cleaned and/or appended with additional information to provide further and/or more relevant market analysis. The data may be classified in one or more passes to further refine the market analysis, where classification may be by a data type, by another characteristic of the data, etc.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of accessing, collecting and classifying that uses information of wireless data market subscribers, said method comprising:

receiving, with a survey participant computer system, subscriber access information from a wireless subscriber to access a wireless carrier webpage, the access information including an indication of a first candidate carrier;

accessing, with the survey participant computer system, a webpage of the first candidate carrier and using the access information to access an online bill of the wireless subscriber via the webpage;

when the access of the online bill via the webpage of the first candidate carrier is unsuccessful, accessing the online bill via a webpage of a subsequent candidate carrier from a list of candidate carriers generated by an online survey system, the survey participant computer system to access each of a plurality of wireless carriers from the list of candidate carriers until the correct wireless carrier is identified;

collecting data usage information from the accessed online bill associated with the correct candidate carrier and saving to a memory associated with the survey participant computer system;

performing initial processing of said data usage information to generate processed data usage information associated with the wireless subscriber; and

classifying said processed data usage information to generate market analysis information for said wireless data market.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein said data usage information from the accessed online bill comprises at least one of charge information and usage information for wireless data associated with the wireless subscriber that is a panelist member.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein said data usage information further comprises an identifier for at least one of a ringtone for a wireless device, a game for said wireless device, content for playback on said wireless device, a wallpaper for display on a wireless device, a screensaver for display on a wireless device, or at least one of a product or a service applied for using said wireless device.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein said wireless subscriber is identified using responses from an online survey, said responses indicating subscribers who fit a profile.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein said initial processing of said data usage information comprises at least one of standardizing said data usage information, cleaning said data usage information, or applying additional information to said data usage information to provide further market analysis for said wireless data market.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

grouping a plurality of wireless subscribers into a plurality of groupings based upon a characteristic shared by subscribers of each of said plurality of groupings;

performing a comparison of a number of subscribers within a select grouping with respect to a predetermined number of people having said characteristic within a predetermined geographical area; and

assigning a weighting factor to subscribers of said select grouping based upon said comparison, wherein an application of said weighting factor to said select grouping provides a panel of wireless subscribers that is more representative of a population within said predetermined geographical area.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

in response to an input identifying said wireless data market, outputting said market analysis information using at least one of a presentation, a datafeed, or an online access tool enabling a third party to retrieve select portions of said data usage information.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

accessing archived market analysis information for said wireless data market; and

processing said archived market analysis information along with said processed data usage information to provide further data usage information that indicates a change in said market analysis information over time.

9. A computer system to access, collect and process that uses information of wireless data market subscribers comprising a processor coupled to a bus and a memory coupled to said bus, wherein said memory comprises instructions to, when executed on said processor, at least:

receive subscriber access information from a wireless subscriber to access a wireless carrier webpage, the access information including an indication of a first candidate carrier;

access a webpage of the first candidate carrier and use the access information to access an online bill of the wireless subscriber via the webpage;

when the access of the online bill via the webpage of the first candidate carrier is unsuccessful, access the online bill via a webpage of a subsequent candidate carrier from a list of candidate carriers, and to access each of a plurality of wireless carriers from the list of candidate carriers until the correct wireless carrier is identified;

collect wireless data usage information from the accessed online bill subscriber associated with the correct candidate carrier and saving to the memory; and

process said wireless data to provide market analysis information for said wireless data market.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein said wireless data comprises at least one of charge information and usage information for wireless data associated with the wireless subscriber.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein said wireless data further comprises an identifier for at least one of a ringtone for a wireless device, a game for said wireless device, content for playback on said wireless device, a wallpaper for display on a wireless device, a screensaver for display on a wireless device, or at least one of a product or a service applied for using said wireless device.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein said processing said wireless data comprises at least one of standardizing said wireless data, cleaning said wireless data, classifying said wireless data, or applying additional information to said wireless data to provide further market analysis for said wireless data market.

13. The system of claim 9, further comprising:

to group members of a plurality of wireless subscribers into a plurality of groupings based upon a characteristic shared by members of each of said plurality of groupings;

to perform a comparison of a number of members within a select grouping with respect to a predetermined number of people having said characteristic within a predetermined geographical area; and

to assign a weighting factor to members of said select grouping based upon said comparison, wherein an application of said weighting factor to said select grouping provides a panel that is more representative of a population within said predetermined geographical area.

14. The system of claim 9, further comprising:

in response to an input identifying said wireless data market, to output said market analysis information using at least one of a presentation, a datafeed, and an online access tool enabling a third party to retrieve select portions of said wireless data.

15. The system of claim 9, further comprising:

to access archived market analysis for said wireless data market; and

to process said archived market analysis along with said wireless data to indicate a change in said market analysis information over time.

16. The system of claim 9, wherein processing facilitates classifying said wireless data by a type of data.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the type of data comprises at least one of a ringtone, a game, audio content, video content or a wallpaper.