Patent Publication Number: US-2010114712-A1

Title: System and Method for Web-Based Advertising Using a Cost-Per-Time Scheme

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     This invention relates to web-based advertising and more particularly to a system and method for web-based advertising where revenues are calculated on a cost-per-time basis. 
     BACKGROUND 
     Currently, advertisement revenue for advertisements placed on websites is based on three different platforms: Cost per Impression (CPM), Cost per Click (CPC), or Cost per Action (CPA). 
     CPM is a platform in which an advertiser pays according to how many times an advertisement is viewed by a user. CPM is typically calculated as a cost per thousand impressions, i.e., an amount paid for showing an advertisement one thousand times. For example, if an advertising campaign pays $1.00 CPM, a publisher would earn one tenth of one cent each time a user views an advertisement on the publisher&#39;s website. In practice, the publisher may not earn the full amount for each impression if an ad agency provides the advertisements and takes a percentage of the advertising revenues. A publisher may only be paid for unique impressions, where it will only be paid the first time each unique user sees a particular advertisement. 
     CPC is a platform in which an advertiser pays according to how many times users click on an advertisement. An advertiser will pay a certain amount, typically from five to fifty cents, each time a user clicks on an advertisement displayed on a publisher&#39;s website. A publisher may only be paid for the first unique click by a particular user and an ad agency providing the advertisements may take a percentage of the advertising revenues. A drawback of the CPC platform is that a publisher receives no advertising revenue if no users click on an advertisement. Since the performance of CPC advertisements will vary widely among particular advertisements and particular websites, the performance of CPC advertisements is often discussed in terms of effective CPM. For example, if one thousand impressions of an advertisement that pays 25 cents per click are run on a website and four users click on the advertisement, the publisher will have an effective CPM of $1.00. 
     CPA is a platform in which an advertiser pays each time a user completes a particular action with regard to an advertisement other than clicking on it. Some exemplary user actions are completing a survey, signing up for a subscription, registering with the advertiser, and buying a product. The two basic types of CPA schemes are cost-per-lead and cost-per-sale. In a cost-per-lead scheme, the user action does not require a payment. The user action will typically require the user to register with the advertiser or otherwise provide contact information. A cost-per-lead scheme typically pays between 50 cents and $3.00 per user action. In a cost-per-sale scheme, an advertiser pays each time a user buys one or more products. The amount paid by the advertiser is typically a percentage of the amount of the sale. 
     The type of advertisements publishers choose to run depends on their audience. In general, publishers run as many CPM advertisements as possible and then use some CPC and/or CPA advertisements to fill any remaining advertisement inventory. 
     A currently popular platform for placing advertisements and collecting revenues is Google&#39;s AdSense platform. With AdSense, each time a webpage is accessed, a Java script pulls advertisements from the AdSense program. The advertisements are targeted, which means that the advertisements are related to the content of the webpage containing the advertisement. If a user clicks on an advertisement, the publisher of the webpage earns a portion of the money that the advertiser will pay Google for the click. Using a platform such as AdSense allows a website publisher to receive advertising revenue without the need to locate and directly interact with advertisers. 
     Although the CPM, CPC, and CPA platforms are used by many website publishers to generate revenue, each of these platforms has its drawbacks. With the CPM platform, an advertiser pays per “impression,” but there is no assurance that a user actually reads the advertisement. Advertisements on web pages are so common and numerous that many users simply ignore them, so that advertisers may not actually be getting the “impression” that they are paying for. Also, if the advertisement appears on a web page that is only displayed for a moment before the user clicks on a link and moves to another page, there is simply no time for the user to have read the advertisement. As users become more accustomed to web page advertisements and publishers place numerous advertisements on their pages, the likelihood that a user will interact with an advertisement diminishes, making use of the CPC and CPA platforms less attractive to advertisers. 
     SUMMARY 
     A method for web-based advertising using a cost-per-time scheme includes providing a web page to a browser, the web page containing functionality to enable data to be uploaded to a web server, sending an advertisement to the browser for display on the web page, wherein the browser displays the advertisement at least while an upload of data is in progress, determining a time of an upload of data to the web server, and storing the time of the upload of data wherein the stored time is associated with the advertisement, such that an advertiser is able to be charged for the display of the advertisement based on the time of the upload of data. The advertiser can then be charged for the display of the advertisement on a cost-per-time basis, i.e., charged an amount determined by a cost-per-time rate and how long the advertisement was displayed to the user during the upload. 
     A system for web-based advertising using a cost-per-time scheme includes a web application configured to provide a web page to a browser, wherein the web page is configured to enable a user to upload data to the web application and to display an advertisement while an upload is in progress, a timing unit configured to determine a duration of an upload of data to the web application, and an ad-time database configured to store the duration of the upload of data, wherein the stored duration of the upload is associated with an identifier of the advertisement such that an advertiser is able to be charged for the display of the advertisement based on the duration of the upload of data. The advertiser is charged an amount determined by multiplying a cost-per-time rate by the duration of the upload of data. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a block diagram of one embodiment of a computer network including a system for web-based advertising using a cost-per-time scheme, according to the invention; 
         FIG. 2  is a flowchart of method steps for implementing a cost-per-time web advertising scheme, according to one embodiment of the invention; and 
         FIG. 3  is a flowchart of method steps for implementing a cost-per-time web advertising scheme, according to another embodiment of the invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       FIG. 1  is a block diagram of one embodiment of a computer network containing a system for web advertising using a cost-per-time scheme, according to the invention. A client  110  includes a web browser  112 , which is capable of communicating with a web server  140  via a network  130 . Network  130  may be any type of communication network such as a local area network or a wide area network like the Internet, and may be wired, wireless, or a combination. Client  110  may be any type of general computing device such as a desktop or laptop computer, or may be a portable handheld device such as a PDA or a smartphone. Web server  140  includes a web application  142  that is configured to receive uploaded data from browser  112 . For example, web application  142  may be a file-sharing site like a photo-sharing site or a video-sharing site. Alternatively, web application  142  may be a website that is a gateway to a content addressable storage (CAS) system, which enables users to upload documents and other data to the CAS system for storage. Web server  140  also includes a timing unit  144  and an ad-time database  146 . 
     Ad server  120  is operated by an entity that provides advertisements to web pages on behalf of advertisers. Ad server  120  sends advertisements to browser  112  in response to requests from applets, such as Java scripts, embedded in web pages displayed by browser  112 . The advertisement provider can provide advertisements according to the CPM, CPC, and/or CPA platforms. The advertisement provider also provides advertisements to web pages published by web application  142  on a cost-per-time (CPT) platform. In the CPT platform, advertisers agree to pay for advertisements displayed on web pages during an upload of data from a browser to a website. The advertiser is charged on a cost-per-time basis, i.e., the advertiser is charged based on how long an advertisement is displayed on a web page during an upload. For example, an advertiser may be charged an amount determined by multiplying the duration of an upload by a cost-per-time rate. The cost-per-time rate can be expressed as a cost per second, a cost per millisecond, a cost per microsecond, or a cost per any other appropriate unit of time. To upload data successfully, the user cannot close the web page of web application  142  or browser  112 . So with the CPT platform, an advertiser can be reasonably sure that its advertisement will be displayed to the user for a certain amount of time, the entire duration of the upload. While upload times will vary based on the amount of data being uploaded and any congestion on network  130 , with the CPT platform an advertiser can be reasonably sure its advertisement will be displayed on a web page for some amount of time during which the user is disinclined to close the web page. 
     When browser  112  receives a web page from web application  142 , applets embedded in the web page request advertisements from ad server  120 . These advertisements are provided according to a CPM, CPC, or CPA platform. When a user instructs browser  112  to upload data, such as a photo or a document, to web application  142 , browser  112  sends a request to upload data to web application  142 . Web application  142  then enables the upload and sends an instruction to ad server  120  to send an advertisement that is associated with a CPT scheme to browser  112 . In another embodiment, web application  142  directly embeds an advertisement associated with the CPT scheme into the web page that enables a user to initiate an upload, and that web page and its embedded advertisement are displayed to the user by browser  112  for the duration of the upload. 
     Timing unit  144  determines the duration of the upload. In one embodiment, timing unit  144  records the start and stop times of the upload and determines a total upload time. In another embodiment, timing unit  144  includes a timer that starts when the upload begins and stops when the upload is complete. The duration of the upload is expressed as a number of time units, for example milliseconds or microseconds. Ad-time database  146  stores the time of the upload and associates the time with an identifier of the particular advertisement that was displayed to the user during the upload. Ad-time database  146  stores all upload times that correspond to an advertisement displayed to a user during an upload and can generate a cumulative time for each advertisement. 
     Web application  142  sends the cumulative time for each advertisement to ad server  120  and the advertisement provider that operates ad server  120  can issue an invoice or otherwise request payment from the advertisers. The payment amount is determined by multiplying the cumulative time by a cost-per-time rate. In another embodiment, the publisher who operates web application  142  deals directly with the advertisers to request payment for the advertisements. 
       FIG. 2  is a flowchart of method steps for implementing a cost-per-time web advertising scheme, according to one embodiment of the invention. In step  212 , web application  142  receives a request from a browser to upload data. In step  214 , timing unit  144  records the time that the data begins uploading to web application  142 . In step  216 , ad server  120  sends an advertisement associated with a CPT scheme to browser  112 , which displays the advertisement to the user during the entire upload time. In another embodiment, the advertisement is embedded into the web page provided by web application  142  that enables the user to upload data. In step  218 , timing unit  144  records the time when the upload is complete. In step  220 , timing unit  144  determines the total upload time. In step  222 , the total upload time is recorded in ad-time database  146  such that the total upload time is associated with an identifier of the advertisement that was displayed to the user. In one embodiment, ad-time database  146  adds the total upload time to a cumulative time associated with the advertisement. In step  224 , web application  142  determines a cumulative time associated with an advertisement and sends the cumulative time to ad server  120 . The operator of ad server  120  then calculates an amount due based on the cumulative time and a cost-per-time rate, and issues an invoice to the advertiser. In another embodiment, web application  142  determines the cumulative time, determines the amount due, and issues an invoice directly to the advertiser. 
       FIG. 3  is a flowchart of method steps for implementing a cost-per-time web advertising scheme, according to another embodiment of the invention. In step  312 , web application  142  receives a request from a browser to upload data. In step  314 , timing unit  144  starts a timer when the data begins uploading to web application  142 . In step  316 , ad server  120  sends an advertisement associated with a CPT scheme to browser  112 , which displays the advertisement to the user during the entire upload time. In another embodiment, the advertisement is embedded into the web page provided by web application  142  that enables the user to upload data. In step  318 , web application  142  determines if the upload is complete. If the upload is complete, in step  320  timing unit  144  stops the timer. In step  322 , the total upload time (the value of the timer) is recorded in ad-time database  146  such that the total upload time is associated with an identifier of the advertisement that was displayed to the user. In one embodiment, ad-time database  146  adds the total upload time to a cumulative time associated with the advertisement. In step  324 , web application  142  determines a cumulative time associated with an advertisement and sends the cumulative time to ad server  120 . The operator of ad server  120  then calculates an amount due based on the cumulative time and a cost-per-time rate, and issues an invoice to the advertiser. In another embodiment, web application  142  determines the cumulative time, determines the amount due, and issues an invoice directly to the advertiser. 
     The invention has been described above with reference to specific embodiments. It will, however, be evident that various modifications and changes may be made thereto without departing from the broader spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims. The foregoing description and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense.