Advertisement distribution system

• US 20050114526A1
• Filed: 09/30/2004
• Published: 05/26/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Square Enix
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Square Enix
• Inventors: Aoyama, Koji
• Granted Patent: US 9,838,752 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/228
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/12 involving interaction between a plurality of game devices, e.g. transmisison or distribution systems protocols for networked virtual reality, networked games H04L29/06034
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/30 Interconnection arrangements between game servers and game devices; Interconnection arrangements between game devices; Interconnection arrangements between game servers
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/61 using advertising information
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/402 Communication between platforms, i.e. physical link to protocol
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/407 Data transfer via internet
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/50 characterized by details of game servers
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/5506 using advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/5546 using player registration data, e.g. identification, account, preferences, game history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25808 Management of client data terminal profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/303
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25866 Management of end-user data customer care in data networks H04L41/5077
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4788 communicating with other users, e.g. chatting arrangements for providing for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms, to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1813; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/165 Centralised control of user terminal subsequent to an upstream request signal H04N7/17345; Registering at central by two-way working H04N7/17309
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17336 Handling of requests in head-ends

Abstract

Effective advertisements are provided to users of a network. On a terminal of a user B, user names of users whom the user B registered in advance as friends are displayed. On the terminal, information indicating whether respective friend users are online or offline, is also displayed. Icons representing video games, etc., played by the friend users are also displayed on the terminal. When the user B clicks the icon of the Game C associated with the user A, the terminal executes advertisement information display processing. By this processing, an advertisement information screen is displayed on the terminal. On the advertisement information screen, an advertisement relating to the status of the user A registered as the friend is displayed.

Claims

1. An advertisement distributing system having a server and a plurality of terminals connected to the server via a network, wherein:

a first terminal comprises a first transmitting system that transmits information indicating a status of a user, and

the server comprises;

a user relationship storage that stores the user in association with another user;

an advertisement information storage that stores advertisement information based upon a status of the user;

a first receiving system that receives information indicating the status of the user from the first terminal;

a detecting system that detects, in the advertisement information storage, the advertisement information corresponding to the received status of the user; and

a second transmitting system that transmits the detected advertisement information to a second terminal of the other user;

the second terminal of the other user including;

a second receiving system that receives the advertisement information from the server; and

a displaying system that displays the advertisement information received by the second receiving system.

2. The advertisement distributing system according to claim 1, wherein the second transmitting system transmits the information indicating the status of the user together with the advertisement information,

the second receiving system receives the information indicating the status of the user together with the advertisement information, and

the displaying system displays the advertisement information together with the status of the user based upon the information received by the second receiving system.

3. The advertisement distributing system according to claim 2, wherein the first transmitting system further transmits designation information designating the associated other user,

the first receiving system further receives the designation information, and

the user relationship storage stores the user in association with the other user based upon the designation information.

4. The advertisement distribution system according to claim 1, wherein the user relationship storage stores the user in association with a plurality of other users, and

the second transmitting system transmits to each other terminal stored in the user relationship storage as associated with the first terminal.

5. The advertisement distribution system according to claim 2, wherein the information indicating the status of the user comprises information indicating a video game executed by the first terminal of the user.

6. The advertisement distribution system according to claim 2, wherein the first terminal further comprises a detecting system that detects an execution status of software executed by the first terminal of the user, and

wherein the first transmitting system transmits the execution status as the information indicating the status of the user.

7. The advertisement distribution system according to claim 1, wherein the user relationship storage further stores evaluation information of the status of the user,

the second transmitting system transmits the evaluation information together with the information indicating the status of the user,

the second receiving system further receives the evaluation information, and

the displaying system further displays an evaluation corresponding to the evaluation information.

8. The advertisement distribution system according to claim 2, wherein the advertisement information storage stores a plurality of pieces of advertisement information together with a priority for each of the pieces of the advertising information, and

the second transmitting system transmits the advertisement information so that the pieces of advertisement information are displayed on the second terminal in an order of the priority.

9. The advertisement distribution system according to claim 2, wherein the first terminal further comprises a designation system that designates the status of the user, and

the first transmitting system transmits the information indicating the status of the user designated by the designation system.

10. The advertisement distribution system according to claim 9, wherein the first receiving system receives the information indicating the designated status of the user from the second receiving system,

the second transmitting system transmits the information indicating the designated status of the user,

the second receiving system receives the information indicating the designated status of the user,

the displaying system displays the information received by the second receiving system, the information indicating the designated status of the user, and

the second terminal of the other user further comprises a selecting system that selects any one of the statuses of the user displayed by the displaying system.

11. The advertisement distributing system according to claim 1, wherein the first terminal further comprises a detecting system that detects a start and/or end of a video game of a video game program executed by the first terminal, and

the first transmitting system transmits the start and/or the end of the video game detected by the detecting system as the information indicating the status of the user.

12. The advertisement distributing system according to claim 1, wherein the advertisement information storage stores the advertisement information together with expiration date information, and

the detecting system of the server further detects the advertisement information based upon the expiration date information.

13. The advertisement distributing system according to claim 1, wherein the advertisement information storage stores the advertisement information together with age limit information of the advertisement information, and

the detecting system of the server further detects the advertisement information based upon the age limit information.

14. The advertisement distributing system according to claim 1, wherein the server further comprises a counting system that counts a number of times the server receives the information indicating the status of the user and/or a number of times the server transmits the advertisement information.

15. An advertisement distributing server used in an advertisement distributing system, the server being connected to a plurality of terminals via a network, comprising:

a user relationship storage that stores a user in association with another user;

an advertisement information storage that stores advertisement information based upon a status of the user;

a receiving system that receives information indicating the status of the user from a first terminal of the user;

a detecting system that detects, in the advertisement information storage, the advertisement information corresponding to the status of the user indicated by the received information; and

a transmitting system that transmits the detected advertisement information to a second terminal of the other user stored in the user relationship storage.

16. The advertisement distributing server according to claim 15, wherein the transmitting system transmits the information indicating the status of the user together with the advertisement information.

17. The advertisement distributing server according to claim 16, wherein the receiving system further receives designation information designating the other user to be associated with the user from the first terminal, and

the user relationship storage stores the user in association with the other user based upon the designation information.

18. The advertisement distributing server according to claim 15, wherein the user relationship storage stores the user in association with a plurality of other users,

the transmitting system executes transmission to each other terminal of the plurality of other users stored in the user relationship storage associated with the first terminal.

19. The advertisement distributing server according to claim 16, wherein the information indicating the status of the user comprises information indicating a video game executed by the first terminal of the user.

20. The advertisement distributing server according to claim 16, wherein the user relationship storage further stores evaluation information of the status of the user, and

the transmitting system transmits the evaluation information together with the information indicating the status of the user.

21. The advertisement distributing server according to claim 16, wherein the advertisement information storage stores a plurality of pieces of advertisement information together with a priority for each of the pieces of the advertising information, and

the transmitting system transmits the advertisement information so that the pieces of advertisement information are displayed on the second terminal in an order of the priority.

22. The advertisement distribution server according to claim 15, wherein the advertisement information storage stores the advertisement information together with expiration date information, and

the detecting system further detects the advertisement information based upon the expiration date information.

23. The advertisement distribution server according to claim 15, wherein the advertisement information storage stores the advertisement information together with age limit information of the advertisement information, and

the detecting system further detects the advertisement information based upon the age limit information.

24. The advertisement distribution server according to claim 15, further comprising a counting system that counts a number of times the server receives the information indicating the status of the user and/or a number of times the server transmits the advertisement information.

25. A recording medium on which is recorded a program executed by a computer of a server in an advertisement distributing system, which server is connected to a plurality of terminals via a network, the program causing the computer to execute:

receiving information indicating a status of a user from a first terminal;

detecting advertisement information corresponding to the status of the user indicated by the received information in an advertisement information storage that stores the advertisement information based upon the status of the user; and

transmitting the detected advertisement information to a second terminal of another user stored in a user relationship storage associated with the user of the first terminal.

26. The recording medium according to claim 25, wherein the detected advertisement information is transmitted with the information indicating the status of the user.

27. The recording medium according to claim 26, wherein receiving the information indicating the status of the user further comprises receiving designation information designating the other user to be associated with the user of the first terminal from the user, and

the program further causing the computer to cause the user relationship storage to store the user in association with the other user based upon the designation information.

28. The recording medium according to claim 26, wherein the information indicating the status of the user comprises information indicating a video game executed by the first terminal of the user.

29. The recording medium according to claim 25, wherein the user relationship storage further stores evaluation information of the status of the user, and

wherein the information indicating the status of the user is transmitted together with the evaluation information.

30. The recording medium according to claim 26, wherein the advertisement information storage stores a plurality of pieces of advertisement information together with a priority for each of the pieces of the advertisement information, and

wherein the advertisement information is transmitted so that the pieces of advertisement information are displayed on the second terminal in an order of the priority.

31. The recording medium according to claim 25, wherein the advertisement information storage stores the advertisement information together with expiration date information, and

wherein the advertisement information is further detected based upon the expiration date information.

32. The recording medium according to claim 25, wherein the advertisement information storage stores the advertisement information together with age limit information of the advertisement information, and

wherein the advertisement information is further detected based upon the age limit information.