Patent Application
20120290404
1. Technical Field
The disclosed embodiments relate in general to a system and a method for promoting multi-layer forwarding messages.
2. Description of the Related Art
Currently, many vendors prefer to send advertisement and discount messages via short message service. An advertisement sender would like to have advertisement messages be sent out quickly for catching the message receivers' attention and for promoting consumption. However, more and more people do not like to receive mass messages which are regarded as spams. Thus, the effect of sending advertisement messages in the form of short messages to catch the message receivers' attention and promote consumption is not satisfactory. The practice of sending advertisement messages to many receivers from the vendors does not work well.
The disclosure is directed to a system and a method for promoting multi-layer forwarding messages between mobile devices.
According to one embodiment, a method for promoting multi-layer forwarding messages between mobile devices is provided. The method includes the following steps. In step (sa), at least one feedback message is received by an advertisement server system, wherein each of the at least one feedback message includes a forwarding user identifier and a corresponding first receiving user identifier of a corresponding first receiving device, the advertisement server system receives the feedback message from the corresponding first receiving device of the corresponding first receiving user identifier, and the advertisement server system interprets the at least one feedback message as a first-layer forwarding of an advertisement message associated with the forwarding user identifier. In step (sb), a first forwarding number of the first-layer forwarding of the advertisement message is recorded to the advertisement server system according to the at least one feedback message of the first-layer forwarding of the advertisement message. In step (sc), an encouraging message is sent to a forwarding mobile device of the forwarding user identifier from the advertisement server system, wherein the encouraging message includes information based on a forwarding weight determined according to at least the first forwarding number.
According to another embodiment, a system for promoting multi-layer forwarding messages between mobile devices is provided. The system includes: a receiving unit, a storage unit, a processing unit and a sending unit. The receiving unit receives at least one feedback message, wherein each of the at least one feedback message includes a forwarding user identifier and a corresponding first receiving user identifier of a corresponding first receiving device, the advertisement server system receives the feedback message from the corresponding first receiving device of the corresponding first receiving user identifier, and the advertisement server system interprets the at least one feedback message as a first-layer forwarding of an advertisement message associated with the forwarding user identifier. The processing unit, coupled to the receiving unit and the storage unit, records a first forwarding number of the first-layer forwarding of the advertisement message to the storage unit according to the at least one feedback message of the first-layer forwarding of the advertisement message. The sending unit sends an encouraging message to a forwarding mobile device of the forwarding user identifier, wherein the encouraging message includes information based on a forwarding weight determined according to at least the first forwarding number.
According to an alternative embodiment, a method for promoting multi-layer forwarding messages between mobile devices for use in a mobile device is provided. The method includes the following steps. An advertisement message having a text portion and a network resource locating portion is provided. At least one piece of location information is obtained from the advertisement message. The at least one piece of location information is converted into at least one corresponding hyperlink according to the network resource locating portion. An information request is sent to a server system according to the at least one hyperlink. Response data is received from the server system. At least one user interface for forwarding the advertisement message is displayed on a user interface of a mobile device according to the response data. A message based on the advertisement message is forwarded to at least one receiving mobile device of at least one user identifier in response to a forwarding confirmation sent from the user interface. A forwarding number of the forwarding action is recorded. An encouraging message based on the forwarding number is displayed.
The above and other aspects of the disclosure will become better understood with regard to the following detailed description of the preferred but non-limiting embodiment(s). The following description is made with reference to the accompanying drawings.
In the following detailed description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the disclosed embodiments. It will be apparent, however, that one or more embodiments may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are schematically shown in order to simplify the drawing.
The embodiment provides a system and a method for promoting multi-layer forwarding messages between mobile devices.
After receiving an advertisement message, if the mobile device M0 decides to forward the advertisement message or the message based thereon (such as recommendation) to other mobile devices such as the mobile devices M1 and M2 (referred as receiving devices or receiving mobile devices), then the advertisement message may be forwarded to the mobile devices of other users. In general, advertisement messages are forwarded to acquaintances, friends or relatives who are less likely to reject, and such promotion is more likely to be accepted. Examples of mobile devices include smart mobile phone, mobile phone, tablet PC, notebook computer, and e-book.
The advertisement server system 10 is used for promoting forwarding, generates an encouraging message with respect to the forwarding of an advertisement message and further forwards the encouraging message to the mobile device of the forwarding user. The forwarding user, being rewarded according to the weight based on the forwarding number or being informed of the coming reward, is more willing to forward the advertisement message.
In step S110 of
http://www.pieony.com/feedback?ad=0001&sender=0999123456&receiver=0900123456
The above URL indicates that with respect to the advertisement message 0001, the mobile phone number of the forwarder being 0999123456 and the mobile phone number of the receiver being 0900123456 are forwarded to the website http://www.pieony.com. In another embodiment, an application program (APP), used for implementing the function indicated by the dotted block SM11 or implementing other network data forwarding technology, may be installed and executed on the mobile device M1 for sending a feedback message as indicated by the arrow SM12 when the forwarded advertisement message is received by the mobile device M1.
In step S120 of
In step S130 of
In step S140 of
Step S140 of
The relationships between the forwarding weight and the forwarding number of step S140 are exemplified below. The example of Table 1 is based on the total forwarding number.
For example, when the total forwarding number (Sfw) reaches the advertisement server system 10, the forwarding weight (FW) is 2, and the corresponding discount is 10% off. As indicated in
In the example of Table 2, the forwarding weight is determined according to the first forwarding number (Nfw1) and other forwarding number (Mfw) (or the second forwarding number or the total number after the first-layer forwarding).
As indicated in Table 2, the forwarding weight may be expressed as: FW=f1(Nfw1)+f2(Mfw), wherein FW denotes the forwarding weight, the value of the forwarding weight may be obtained from the weighted sum, and the corresponding relationships f1( ) and f2( ) are designed according to the needs.
Furthermore, the forwarding number of the embodiment is obtained by counting effective forwarding. Effective forwarding refers to the instance that the advertisement server system 10 successfully receives a feedback message and the receiving device (that is, the user) has never received the advertisement message before. Effective forwarding may be estimated and determined from the feedback message received in step S120 and the record of step S130.
In other embodiments, the advertisement server system 10 may be regarded as a server system of advertisement operation used as an operation platform capable of forwarding advertisement messages for one or more advertisers and realized as a mechanism capable of charging advertisers. For example, the method of the above embodiment may further include: generating an advertisement payment message (such as webpage, short message, e-mail). The advertisement payment message includes information based on an advertisement payment value and is determined according to at least the first forwarding number and the second forwarding number such as the total forwarding number or the weighted sum thereof. The advertisement payment value (ADP) may be expressed as: ADP=F(Sfw) or ADP=F1(Nfw1)+F2(Mfw), wherein F( ), F1( ) F2( ) are corresponding relationships. Besides, the advertisement payment value associated with a particular advertisement message is calculated according to the total forwarding number of the forwarding users of many mobile devices such as the mobile device M0. In another example, the total forwarding numbers associated with respective advertisement messages of a particular advertisement agent are calculated for calculating the advertisement payment value. In another example, the advertisement payment value associated with other sources of advertisement message such as the NFC tag 11 or the QR code 12 of
In the following embodiments, the operation of the mobile device M0, the method of
Referring to
The operations of the mobile device M0 under different implementations are exemplified below.
In the present embodiment, an application program (APP) used for implementing the function indicated by a dotted block SM11 or other network data forwarding technology may be installed and executed on the mobile device M0. The mobile device M0 may be realized by a smart device such as a mobile phone, a tablet PC or a device (such as a GPS device) having mobile communication function. Referring to
In the present embodiment, the mobile device M0 is not equipped with an application program (APP) but has Internet access function. Moreover, the web browser of the mobile device M0 supports such as the script program or HTML5, and may use a browser program for executing function such as forwarding advertisement message on the mobile device M0. When the mobile device M0 sends a webpage request from such as the URL of an advertisement message, the webpage replied by the website contains the programming code (such as the script program or HTML5) of the forwarding program. By executing the forwarding program of the browser, the user may select target receivers of the advertisement message from the contact list or other lists of the mobile device M0, input the user identifier, or edit the content of the advertisement message before forwarding the advertisement message. After forwarding the advertisement message (as indicated in the arrow SM03), the mobile device M0 may use the forwarding program executed on the browser for sending a report message via the Internet, as illustrated in arrow SM04.
In the present embodiment, the mobile device M0 is not equipped with an application program (APP) but has Internet access function. Moreover, the web browser of the mobile device M0 does not support such as the script program or HTML5, and is incapable of executing the function such as forwarding advertisement message as disclosed in the second embodiment. Under such circumstances, the mobile device M0 may be realized by a mobile phone providing WAP Internet access or a 3G mobile phone having Internet access. In the present embodiment, the advertisement server system 10 provides forwarding function and forwards the advertisement message to other users in the name of the user identifier ID0 of the mobile device M0. Referring to
In the first to the third embodiment disclosed above, the advertisement server system 10 may further process or make use of the report message. For example, the advertisement server system 10 may add the count to the first forwarding number. When the mobile device M1 is incapable of connecting to the Internet or is not equipped with an application program for sending a feedback message, the report message may be used for calculating the forwarding number. In addition, the report message may be used with step S210 for identifying the forwarding target or confirming whether the forwarding of advertisement message is successful or not so as to more accurately calculate the behavior of forwarding or design a mechanism for rewarding the forwarding user.
In the present embodiment, the mobile device M0 is neither equipped with an application program (APP) nor connected to the Internet, and does not have Internet access function. The mobile device M0 may be realized by a 2G mobile phone, or a mobile phone with basic functions such as making/answering calls or sending/receiving short messages. Under such circumstances, after the mobile device M0 forwards an advertisement message to the mobile device M1, the mobile device M0 is unable to report the information related to the forwarding to the advertisement server system 10 via the Internet. If the mobile device M1 is capable of connecting to the Internet or equipped with an application program APP, the mobile device M1 sends a feedback message as indicated in step S120, and the advertisement server system 10 is able to record the forwarding information, that is the forwarder and the receiver and the accumulated forwarding number. Therefore, the embodiment of the method of
In the first to the fourth embodiment, the advertisement message is forwarded in the form of short messages. However, in other embodiment, the forwarding of advertisement messages between the mobile devices of
Besides, in the embodiment of the method of
Other implementations of the first and the second embodiment are exemplified below. For example, the application program APP (or browser program) of the mobile device M0 may analyze the content of short message, e.g., by parsing the content and extracting related information therefrom, and send a webpage request to the advertisement server system 10 based on the analysis. The advertisement server system 10 may send other information (such as the map and the discount message) related to the content of advertisement to the mobile device M0. Therefore, from the user's perspective, the interaction between the mobile device M0 and the advertisement server system 10 is more straightforward, and it is easier for the user to understand the advertisement message so that the user will be more willing to forward the advertisement message.
Referring to
The system architecture of the present disclosure as indicated in
Referring to
In step S910, after receiving a short message, the application program APP installed on the mobile device M0 locates the address (conformed to the descriptions of address description condition), the landmark (conformed to the descriptions of landmark description condition) or the GPS coordinates (conformed to the descriptions of GPS coordinate description condition) from the short message 90, and create hyperlink from the located information. Let the URL http://www.adsearch.com of the advertisement server system 20 be taken for example. The address located form the short message is ABC. The address is displayed as a hyperlink (such as underlined) by the application program APP. When the hyperlink is clicked by the user, a webpage request immediately sent from the mobile device M0 is expressed as:
http://www.adsearch.com/map?address=ABC.
In step S920, the application program APP may further judge whether the hyperlink is pressed. If no, then the application program terminates or executes other processing. If yes, then the mobile device M0 sends a webpage request as disclosed above.
Via the address, landmark or GPS coordinate hyperlink indicated by the dotted squared frame 92, the mobile device may be connected to the advertisement server system 20 of the present embodiment, and the information of address, landmark or GPS coordinates is transmitted together in the form of http request. In response to the corresponding http supply request, the advertisement server system 20 sends at least one webpage or data 95 to the mobile device M0. In step S930, the application program APP may display the map of the location, the discount information and the user interface for forwarding message according to the data as indicated by the frame 96 of
After the operation interface provided by the above platform forwards messages such as short messages or e-mails, the application program APP of the platform may calculate the privilege according to the number and weight of message forwarding and send the reward to the forwarders. The advertisement server system 10 may judge and obtain the information of successful forwarding according to such as the report message SM04 and the step S120 of the above embodiment, and further uses the obtained information as a basis for calculating the forwarding weight. Different privileges or premiums can be assigned, e.g., for the forwarding behavior or user, according to the forwarding weight, in order to maintain the fairness of rewarding, for example.
Through the feedback mechanism disclosed in the present embodiment of the disclosure, the vendors may make more consumers be informed of the advertisement and discount message, and the short message forwarders may obtain more privileges. Meanwhile, the consumers may easily obtain the location information of the vendors without having to go through complicated searching process, and this is indeed very convenient to the consumers.
The application program APP is used as an exemplification in the fifth embodiment. However, the exemplification of the fifth embodiment is also applicable to an example of the second embodiment and an example of the third embodiment. In the example of the second embodiment, the browser program is used as a user interface for forwarding advertisement messages. In the example of the third embodiment, the advertisement server system 10 uses the browser program for forwarding advertisement messages.
Also, the fifth embodiment discloses a method for promoting multi-layer forwarding messages for use in a mobile device. The method includes the following steps. An advertisement message including a text portion and a network resource locating portion is received. At least one piece of location information is obtained from the advertisement message, e.g., by way of analysis the advertisement message with text parsing and extraction. The at least one piece of location information is converted into at least one corresponding hyperlink according to the network resource locating portion. An information request is sent to a server system, e.g., a web-based server system such as an advertisement server system as exemplified above, according to the at least one hyperlink. Response data of the server system is received. At least a user interface for forwarding the advertisement message is displayed on a user interface of the mobile device according to the response data. A message based on the advertisement message is forwarded to at least one receiving mobile device of at least one user identifier in response to a forwarding confirmation sent from the user interface. A forwarding number of the forwarding action is recorded. An encouraging message including information based on the forwarding number is displayed on the user interface of the mobile device. In another embodiment, at least the user interface for forwarding the advertisement message and the response data are displayed on the user interface of the mobile device according to the response data. The response data includes map data, traffic data or attached data associated with the at least one piece of location information. The map data is such as the map covering the vicinity of the destination. The traffic data is such as the planning or information associated with the route or transport from the current address to the destination. The attached data is such as the discount information or any other relevant data. The response data is displayed in the form of image, test or a combination of text and image, as illustrated in
A number of embodiments of a system and a method for promoting multi-layer forwarding messages are disclosed above. In some embodiments of the system for promoting multi-layer forwarding messages, the encouraging messages are effectively sent out according to the forwarding number for promoting the multi-layer forwarding between mobile devices so as to change the users' behaviors. Some embodiments show that the system and the mobile device provide a platform for promoting multi-layer forwarding messages and are more flexible in terms of implementation. The first to the fifth embodiments may also be applicable to different types of mobile devices. In some embodiments, the system and the method for promoting multi-layer forwarding messages are also applicable to mobile devices, and are capable of displaying more relevant information (such as map, discount information or reward information) in a more convenient way to give users better user experience and make them more willingly to forward relevant advertisement messages. In some embodiments, the advertisement payment may also be calculated precisely.
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the disclosed embodiments. It is intended that the specification and examples be considered as exemplary only, with a true scope of the disclosure being indicated by the following claims and their equivalents.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100149215 | Dec 2011 | TW | national |
This application claims the benefit of U.S. provisional application Ser. No. 61/485,643, filed May 13, 2011, and Taiwan application Serial No. 100149215, filed Dec. 28, 2011, the subject matters of which are incorporated herein by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61485643 | May 2011 | US |
