Flexible advertiser billing system with mixed postpayment and prepayment capabilities

• US 7,792,743 B2
• Filed: 05/02/2007
• Issued: 09/07/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/02/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Tanphaichitr, Saksiri, Koningstein, Ross, Cunningham, Emmett Andrew, Douglas, Giles, Sukla, Vikas, Schulman, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Apple; Kirsten S
• Assistant Examiner(s): Gregg; Mary
• Application Number:
  US11/743,573
• Publication Number:
  US 20080275811A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,224 Days
• Field of Search: 705/38, 705/35, 705/40
• US Class Current: 705/38
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/03 Credit; Loans; Processing thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 Accounting

Abstract

The present invention relates to systems and methods for managing risk in business transactions. In an embodiment, a computer-implemented method of managing risk exposure of a provide includes providing a product from the provider to a client under an initial billing experience between the provider and the client, evaluating a credit risk associated with the client at least one of periodically or upon occurrence of an event, and modifying a credit line the provider is willing to offer the client.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of managing risk, comprising:

electronically serving, on a computer, a first stream of advertisements, wherein an advertiser is billed for the first stream of advertisements under a billing experience;

electronically determining, on a computer, that an account balance associated with the first stream of advertisements has reached a corresponding credit line;

electronically evaluating, on a computer, a credit risk associated with the advertiser based on the account balance reaching the credit line and at least one of;

a past billing history, a method of payment associated with the advertiser, or a demand by the advertiser for advertisements;

electronically modifying, on a computer, the billing experience based on the evaluated credit risk, comprising;

electronically transitioning, on a computer, to at least one of a prepay billing experience, a partial prepay partial post-pay billing experience, a post-pay billing experience, or an end-of-term billing experience;

electronically modifying, on a computer, the first stream of advertisements based on the evaluated credit risk to result in a content of a second stream of advertisements; and

electronically serving, on a computer, the second stream of advertisements instead of the first stream of advertisements, wherein the advertiser is billed for the second stream of advertisements under the modified billing experience.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the advertisements have a low cost of goods sold.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein electronically modifying the first stream of advertisements further comprises electronically modifying the cost of goods sold.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein electronically modifying the cost of goods sold comprises reducing a rate at which advertisements are served.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the advertisements have a high cost of goods sold.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the advertisements comprise at least one of a video advertisement or a print advertisement.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the advertiser is at least one of a merchant or a group of merchants having a correlated risk.

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

increasing the credit line.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, further comprising at least one of:

notifying the advertiser that the provider is willing to increase the credit line of the advertiser; and

advising the advertiser that the advertiser is eligible for a higher credit line.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein increasing the credit line comprises provisioning the credit line at a credit line limit requested by the advertiser when the credit line a provider is willing to extend to the advertiser exceeds a credit line limit requested by the advertiser.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein electronically modifying the billing experience further comprises changing the billing experience of the advertiser from a billing experience having a lower credit line to a billing experience having a higher credit line.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein electronically transitioning comprises:

changing a prepay billing experience to a partial prepay partial post-pay billing experience;

changing a partial prepay partial post-pay billing experience to a prepay billing experience;

changing a threshold billing experience to a partial prepay partial post-pay billing experience;

changing a threshold billing experience to a end-of-term billing experience;

or

changing an end-of-term billing experience to a threshold billing experience.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein electronically modifying comprises removing access to a guaranteed form of payment from the billing experience of the advertiser.

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

electronically reacting, on a computer, to a removal of a guaranteed form of payment by the advertiser, wherein reacting includes at least one of decreasing the credit line of the advertiser and acting on a still-available guaranteed form of payment of the advertiser.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein electrically modifying the billing experience further comprises:

decreasing a credit line.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, further comprising electronically advising the advertiser, using a computer, that the credit line has decreased when the credit line is reduced below a line requested by the advertiser.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, wherein electrically modifying the billing experience further comprises changing the billing experience of the advertiser from a billing experience having a higher credit line to a billing experience having a lower credit line.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein electronically transitioning comprises:

changing a partial prepay partial post-pay billing experience to a prepay billing experience;

or

changing an end-of-term billing experience to a threshold billing experience.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, further comprising electronically offering, on a computer, a guarantee mechanism to the advertiser.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, further comprising:

electronically acting, using a computer, on a guarantee provided by the advertiser.

21. The computer-implemented method of claim 20, wherein electronically acting on a guarantee comprises at least one of charging a credit card held in reserve or depleting a cash balance.

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

electronically providing, on a computer, the advertiser with an indication of the evaluated credit risk.

23. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the electronically modifying the first stream of advertisements further comprises:

reducing a rate at which the advertisements are served.

24. The computer-implemented method of claim 23, further comprising:

electronically ceasing to serve the advertisements, on a computer, when the evaluated credit risk is equal to or above a level.

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

allowing the advertiser to make an ad hoc payment for at least a portion of the account balance.

26. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein electronically evaluating the credit risk further comprises:

evaluating at least one of the following;

a transaction history of the advertiser and a payment history of the advertiser.

27. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein electronically evaluating the credit risk associated with the advertiser further comprises evaluating the credit risk upon occurrence of at least one of:

monetization, an order from the advertiser, non-payment or partial payment of an invoice after a given time period, and exceeding a given fraction of the credit limit by the total credit risk.

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

electronically retaining access, on a computer, to a guaranteed form of payment to reduce risk caused by extending credit to the advertiser.

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

holding cash on balance to reduce risk caused by extending credit to the advertiser.

48. The method of claim 1, wherein the second stream of advertisements includes advertisements served at a slower rate than the first stream of advertisements.

49. The method of claim 1, wherein the second stream of advertisements includes advertisements with a different cost than the first stream of advertisements.

30. A system for managing risk exposure, comprising:

a product supplier, implemented on a computer readable medium, configured to serve a first stream of advertisements, wherein an advertiser is billed for the first stream of advertisements under a billing experience;

a risk evaluator, implemented on a computer readable medium, configured to evaluate a risk associated with the advertiser,

wherein the risk evaluator is configured such that when an account balance associated with the advertiser reaches a corresponding credit line, the risk evaluator evaluates the risk based on the account balance reaching the corresponding credit line and at least one of;

a past billing history, a method of payment associated with the advertiser, or a demand by the advertiser for the advertisements; and

a biller, implemented on a computer readable medium, configured to modify the billing experience based on the evaluated risk;

wherein the product supplier is configured to modify the first stream of advertisements based on the evaluated risk to result in a content of a second stream of advertisements and to serve the second stream of advertisements instead of the first stream of advertisements to the advertiser under the modified billing experience.

31. The system of claim 30, further comprising:

a credit line calculator, implemented on a computer readable medium, that is configured to calculate a credit line a provider is willing to extend to the advertiser based on the evaluated risk.

32. The system of claim 31, further comprising a client interface, implemented on a computer readable medium, that is in communication with the credit module and is configured to notify the advertiser that the advertiser is eligible for additional credit.

33. The system of claim 31, wherein the biller is configured to provision the credit line at a limit requested by the advertiser when the credit line calculator calculates a credit line that exceeds a credit line limit requested by the advertiser.

34. The system of claim 31, wherein the biller billing is configured to change the billing experience from a billing experience having a lower credit line to a billing experience having a higher credit line.

35. The system of claim 34, wherein the biller is configured to change the billing experience in one of the following manners:

transitioning from a prepay billing experience to a partial prepay partial post-pay billing experience;

transitioning from a threshold billing experience to a end-of-term billing experience;

increasing a length of a term for an end-of-term billing experience, and increasing a threshold of a threshold billing experience.

36. The system of claim 30, wherein the biller is configured to change the billing experience by dropping a requirement for a guarantee form of payment for the advertiser.

37. The system of claim 31, wherein the credit line calculator is configured to calculate calculates a credit line that is lower than a credit line previously extended to the advertiser.

38. The system of claim 37, wherein the biller is configured to change the billing experience from a billing experience having a higher credit line to a billing experience having a lower credit line.

39. The system of claim 38, wherein the biller is configured to change the billing experience in one of the following manners:

transitioning from a partial prepay partial post-pay billing experience to a prepay billing experience and transitioning from a end-of-term billing experience to a threshold billing experience.

40. The system of claim 37, wherein the biller is configured to offer a guarantee mechanism to the advertiser that can increase the credit line the provider is willing to extend to the advertiser such that a billing experience of the advertiser is preserved.

41. The system of claim 37, wherein the biller is configured to pull from a guarantee form of payment provided by the advertiser.

42. The system of claim 30, wherein the product supplier is configured to throttle the supply of the advertisements when the credit risk of the advertiser increases.

43. The system of claim 42, wherein the product supplier is configured to release the throttle after the credit risk of the advertiser is reduced.

44. The system of claim 30, further comprising a client interface that is configured to allow the advertiser to access information about the advertiser.

45. The system of claim 44, wherein the client interface is configured to provide the advertiser with an indication of at least one of the credit risk associated with the advertiser and the credit line of the advertiser.

46. The system of claim 45, wherein the advertiser includes multiple entities and the client interface is configured to provide the client with the indication in such a manner that the risk correlations used to group the entities into the advertiser is at least partially hidden from any one of the entities.

47. The system of claim 44, wherein the client interface is configured to allow the advertiser to post an ad hoc payment to a provider.

50. A computer-implemented method of managing risk, comprising:

electronically serving, on a computer, a first stream of advertisements, wherein an advertiser is billed for the first stream of advertisements under a billing experience;

electronically transitioning, on a computer, to a partial prepay partial post-pay billing experience;

electronically determining, on a computer, that an account balance associated with the first stream of advertisements has reached a corresponding credit line;

electronically evaluating, on a computer, a risk associated with the advertiser based on the account balance reaching the credit line;

electronically modifying, on a computer, the first stream of advertisements based on the evaluated credit risk to result in a content of a second stream of advertisements; and

electronically serving, on a computer, the second stream of advertisements instead of the first stream of advertisements, wherein the advertiser is billed for the second stream of advertisements under the partial prepay partial post-pay billing experience.

51. A computer-implemented method of managing risk for a provider, comprising:

electronically providing a first stream of products to a purchaser;

electronically determining, on a computer, that an account balance associated with the first stream of products has reached a corresponding credit line;

electronically, on a computer, evaluating a credit risk associated with the purchaser based at least on the account balance reaching the credit line;

electronically modifying, on a computer, the first stream of products based on the evaluated credit risk to result in a content of a second stream of products; and

electronically providing, on a computer, the second stream of products to the purchaser instead of the first stream of products according to the evaluated credit risk, wherein the account balance exceeds the credit line as the second stream of products is provided.

52. The method of claim 51, further comprising:

electronically, on a computer, billing the purchaser for at least a portion of the account balance when the account balance is determined to reach the credit line,

wherein the second stream of products is provided to the purchaser before the provider receives payment for the at least a portion of the account balance.

53. The method of claim 51, wherein:

electronically providing the first stream of products comprises electronically serving a first stream of advertisements to at least one viewer,

electronically providing the second stream of products comprises electronically serving a second stream of advertisements, and

a rate at which advertisements are served is lower in the second stream of advertisements than in the first stream of advertisements.