Systems and methods to accelerate transactions based on predictions

• US 8,412,155 B2
• Filed: 07/28/2011
• Issued: 04/02/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Boku Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Boku Incorporated
• Inventors: McCanna, Philip, Umur, Nesrin, Mason, Jonathan, Twitty, Colleen, Kim, Jang
• Primary Examiner(s): Magloire, Vladimir
• Application Number:
  US13/193,541
• Publication Number:
  US 20120157042A1
• Time in Patent Office: 614 Days
• Field of Search: 455/410, 455/421, 455436-444, 455/407, 705/26.1, 705/26.35
• US Class Current: 455/407
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/405 Establishing or using transaction specific rules
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0202 Market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1414 in real-time
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1453 Methods or systems for payment or settlement of the charges for data transmission involving significant interaction with the data transmission network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5029 Service quality level-based billing, e.g. dependent on measured service level customer is charged more or less
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/83 Notification aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/858 Request users acknowledgement prior to use
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/24 Accounting or billing

Abstract

Systems and methods to accelerate transactions made via mobile communications. In one aspect, a system includes: a data storage facility to store information associated with past payment transactions and an interchange coupled with the data storage facility. The interchange includes a common format processor and a plurality of converters to interface with a plurality of controllers. The converters are configured to communicate with the controllers in different formats, and to communicate with the common format processor in a common format. The common format processor includes a risk engine and a transaction engine. The risk engine estimates a risk in a billing process; and the transaction engine determines whether or not to notify a merchant of the predicted result of billing based on the suggestion from the risk engine and/or other information, such as the status of the wireless telecommunications network.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

instructing a mobile controller to transmit a first billing message to a first phone number to collect funds via a telecommunication carrier of the first phone number;

prior to receiving a delivery confirmation for the first billing message, determining whether a risk of failure in delivery of the first billing message to the first phone number is lower than a threshold;

in response to a determination that the risk is lower than the threshold, transmitting a payment notification to a merchant prior to reception of the delivery confirmation; and

in response to a determination that the risk is higher than the threshold, postponing transmission of the payment notification until the reception of the delivery confirmation.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing information associated with prior payments made via the first phone number; and

determining a user profile based on the information, wherein the determining of whether the risk is lower than the threshold is based at least in part on the user profile.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

determining a merchant profile based on information associated with prior payments to the merchant, wherein the determining of whether the risk is lower than the threshold is based at least in part on the merchant profile.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

storing second information associated with prior payments to the merchant made using funds collected via premium messages, wherein the merchant profile is determined using the second information.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the merchant profile identifies circumstances in which the risk is higher than the threshold.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein the user profile identifies a first risk level associated with a first purchase pattern;

and the method further comprises;

identifying a second purchase pattern for a purchase associated with a payment to the merchant to be made via the funds collected via the first billing message; and

matching the first purchase pattern and the second purchase pattern to determine whether the risk is lower than the threshold.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein the user profile identifies circumstances in which the risk is higher than the threshold.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the user profile further identifiers whether a user of the first phone number is provided with a privilege to have the payment notification transmitted to the merchant prior to the reception of the delivery confirmation.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

after the transmitting of the payment notification to the merchant transmitted prior to reception of the delivery confirmation, detecting a failure to collect the funds via the first billing message and changing the user profile to indicate that the user of the first phone number is not eligible for the privilege.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

after a predetermined number of successful payments have been made using funds collected via transmitting premium messages to the first phone number, providing the user with the privilege.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the privilege is provided to the user after the user has made successful payments using funds collected via transmitting premium messages to the first phone number for a period of time longer than a threshold.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining of whether the risk is lower than the threshold is performed prior to the instructing of the mobile controller to transmit the first billing message.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining of whether the risk is lower than the threshold is performed after the instructing of the mobile controller to transmit the first billing message.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a payment request in an interchange; and

determining a plurality of premium messages, including the first billing messages, to collect funds for the payment request.

15. A non-transitory machine readable medium storing instructions, the instructions causing a computer to perform a method comprising:

instructing a mobile controller to transmit a first billing message to a first phone number to collect funds via a telecommunication carrier of the first phone number;

prior to receiving a delivery confirmation for the first billing message, determining whether a risk of failure in delivery of the first billing message to the first phone number is lower than a threshold;

in response to a determination that the risk is lower than the threshold, transmitting a payment notification to a merchant prior to reception of the delivery confirmation; and

in response to a determination that the risk is higher than the threshold, postponing transmission of the payment notification until the reception of the delivery confirmation.

16. A system, comprising:

a data storage facility to store information associated with past payment transactions; and

an interchange coupled with the data storage facility, the interchange including a common format processor and a plurality of converters to interface with a plurality of controllers, the converters configured to communicate with the controllers in different formats, the converters to communicate with the common format processor in a common format, the common format processor including a risk engine and a transaction engine;

wherein after a payment request identifying a first phone number is received in the interchange, the transaction engine is to use a first converter associated with a telecommunication carrier of the first phone number to instruct a first controller to transmit a first billing message to the first phone number to collect funds for the payment request;

wherein the risk engine is to use the information stored in the data storage facility to determine whether a risk of failure in delivery of the first billing message to the first phone number is lower than a threshold;

wherein, in response to a determination that the risk is lower than the threshold, the transaction engine is to transmit a payment notification to a merchant prior to reception of delivery confirmation for the first billing message; and

wherein, in response to a determination that the risk is higher than the threshold, the transaction engine is to postpone transmission of the payment notification until the reception of the delivery confirmation.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the risk engine is to determine a user profile for the first phone number and a merchant profile for the merchant, using the information;

and the risk is evaluated based on the user profile and the merchant profile; and

wherein the user profile categorizes transaction behaviors of the first phone number and associated risks.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the risk engine is to evaluate the risk based on one of:

data indicating reputation of a device identifier associated with the first phone number; and

a bill payment mode of the first phone number and credit information determined via reverse phone number lookup.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the common format processor is configured to determine a time threshold based on delivery statuses of past premium messages transmitted via the first controller;

and the transaction engine is configured to transmit the payment notification to the merchant prior to the reception of the delivery confirmation for the first billing message, after an elapse time starting from the transmission of the first billing message is longer than the time threshold.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the time threshold is determined based on searching for a minimum time period which when applied to the past premium messages satisfies a margin loss threshold and a confidence level threshold.