Patent ID: 7299197

Claim:
An electronic mall system, comprising: an application service provider registration database operable to store information for a plurality of application service providers, utilization charge rates for a plurality of applications provided by the plurality of application service providers, and utilization categories to which the plurality of applications belong; a reception interface operable to receive an application search request from a user terminal via a network, the application search request specifying one of the utilization categories; and a processing unit operable to: search the application service provider registration database based on the utilization category specified in the received application search request; send information to the user terminal to display a selection screen for selecting at least one of the applications located during the search step; execute a first application and store a first execution start time into a first utilization time management file associated with the first application when receiving a first application execution request from the user terminal; check whether an execution request of any other application is received from the user terminal; execute a second application and store a second execution start time into a second utilization time management file associated with the second application when receiving a second application execution request from the user terminal, the second application being able to share data with the first application; store a first execution end time for the first application and a second execution end time for the second application into the first and second utilization time management files, respectively, when detecting a log out of the user terminal; calculate a first execution time for the first application from the first execution start time and the first execution end time stored in the first utilization time management file and a second execution time for the second application from the second execution start time and the second execution end time stored in the second utilization time management file; calculate a utilization charge for each application service provider and a total utilization charge for a user of the user terminal using the first and second execution times and the utilization charge rates in the application service provider registration database; and perform a settlement process for each application service provider and the user.