Device for gifting, method and program therefor

Abstract

To support a reply to gifting in a method for the gifting.SOLUTION: A device 100 receives, from a fan terminal 110, a purchase request for purchasing a gift, where a target person for gifting and the gift are selected. Then, the device 100 transmits notification of the gifting to a player terminal 120 used by a player, the target of the gifting, and the player receiving the notification inputs a reply for the gifting. The device 100 receiving the reply information generates a reply image including the reply, and gives an NFT associated with the reply image to the fan who has given the gift. When an intention to transfer the NFT is transmitted from the fan terminal 110, the device 100 transmits, to the player terminal 120 of the player who has made the reply, notification that the NFT associated with the reply image including the reply has been transferred.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a device, a method, and a program for gifting. [Background technology]

[0002] In addition to admission fees to matches held at stadiums, sports teams' main sources of income are advertising revenue from sponsors, revenue from broadcasting rights to broadcast or stream matches, and revenue from sales of merchandise related to the team or its players.The revenues earned in this way are used to pay players' salaries, develop players, etc.

[0003] Among the above revenue sources, merchandise sales, unlike admission fees, can be made at any time, regardless of whether a game is being held or not, making them a promising means of strengthening the operational foundations of sports teams. The applicant offers a "gifting" system to sports fans, enabling them to sell digital content called gifts and give them to teams or their players. On the applicant's website, "Engate (registered trademark)," fans can view web pages for each team, where they can designate a team or its players as the recipient and give gifts. When a gift is made, the page displays who gave which gift to whom. For example, fans can give gifts during a game to convey their feelings about the game, and give gifts before and after a game to convey their expectations and support for the team or its players. Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] When a gift is given to a player, the player can reply, that is, send a response to express gratitude, but the more famous the player is, the more time they are likely to have to respond, and replies are less likely to be sent.

[0005] This situation in which it is difficult to get a reply to gifting is not limited to gifting by sports fans, but can also be expected to occur when gifting is given to various celebrities such as artists and comedians.

[0006] The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and its object is to support replies to gifting in a device, method, and program for gifting. [Means for solving the problem]

[0007] In order to achieve this object, a first aspect of the present invention is a method for gifting, comprising the steps of: a device receiving a gift purchase request from a user terminal used by a user, in which the gift recipient and the gift are selected; the device sending a notification to the target person's terminal used by the target person that the gifting has been made; the device generating an image including at least a portion of a reply to the gifting received from the target person's terminal; the device granting an NFT associated with the image to the user; and the device sending a notification to the target person's terminal that the granted NFT has been transferred.

[0008] Also, a second aspect of the present invention is a method of the first aspect, wherein the granting step includes a step in which the device requests the granting of the NFT from an NFT server capable of communicating with the device.

[0009] In addition, a third aspect of the present invention is a method of the second aspect, wherein the granting step includes a step in which the device requests an NFT server capable of communicating with the device to issue an NFT and associate the image with the NFT, with the issuer address corresponding to the target person or the organization to which the target person belongs as the owner, and a step in which the device requests the NFT server to transfer the NFT associated with the image to a user address corresponding to the user.

[0010] Furthermore, a fourth aspect of the present invention is a method of any one of the first to third aspects, wherein the image further includes the name of the target person, the date and time when the target person entered the reply, and the serial number of the reply entered by the target person.

[0011] A fifth aspect of the present invention is the method of the fourth aspect, wherein the image includes a pre-registered image associated with the target person.

[0012] A sixth aspect of the present invention is a method of the fourth or fifth aspect, wherein the images are a set of images relating to the target person, and the NFT is associated with a single file representing the set of images.

[0013] Furthermore, a seventh aspect of the present invention is a method of any of the first to sixth aspects, further comprising a step in which, in response to the device receiving an NFT collection display request requesting the display of an NFT collection, the device sends display information to the user terminal that sent the NFT collection display request for displaying an NFT collection display screen including one or more images associated with one or more NFTs identified by one or more NFT identifiers corresponding to the user identifier included in the NFT collection display request.

[0014] Furthermore, an eighth aspect of the present invention is a method of the seventh aspect, wherein the NFT collection display screen includes a display element for indicating an intention to transfer an NFT associated with an image displayed on the NFT collection display screen.

[0015] In addition, a ninth aspect of the present invention is a program for causing a computer to execute a method for gifting, the method including the steps of receiving a gift purchase request from a user terminal used by a user, in which the gift recipient and the gift are selected; sending a notification to the target person terminal used by the target person that the gifting has been made; generating an image including at least a portion of the reply to the gifting received from the target person terminal; granting an NFT associated with the image to the user; and sending a notification to the target person terminal that the granted NFT has been transferred.

[0016] In addition, a tenth aspect of the present invention is a device for gifting, which receives a gift purchase request from a user terminal used by a user, selecting a target person for the gift and the gift, sends a notification to the target person terminal used by the target person that the gift has been made, generates an image containing at least a portion of the reply to the gift received from the target person terminal, grants the user an NFT associated with the image, and sends a notification to the target person terminal that the granted NFT has been transferred. [Effects of the Invention]

[0017] According to one aspect of the present invention, by generating an image containing at least a portion of a reply from a gifting recipient and making it possible to notify the recipient when an NFT associated with the image is transferred, the financial value of the reply can be visualized and a reply can be encouraged. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0018] [Figure 1] 1 is a diagram showing an apparatus for gifting according to one embodiment of the present invention; [Figure 2] FIG. 1 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for gifting according to one embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 3A]FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a reply image according to one embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 3B] FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a reply image according to one embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 4] FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the flow of NFT granting according to one embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0019] Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

[0020] FIG. 1 shows a device according to one embodiment of the present invention. The device 100 communicates with a user terminal 110 used by a user via an IP network such as the Internet to provide a gifting service that allows gifting. The device 100 also communicates with a target person terminal 120 used by a gift recipient, such as an athlete, via an IP network such as the Internet, enabling the recipient to reply to a gift that selects the recipient. The device 100 then communicates with an NFT server 130 that issues non-fungible tokens (hereinafter referred to as "NFTs") via an IP network such as the Internet, and grants the NFT associated with the reply to the user. The device 100 can also communicate with an administrator terminal 140 used by an administrator who manages reply settings for the recipient or an organization, such as a sports team or sports organization, to which the recipient belongs via an IP network such as the Internet, and receive setting information. Here, "gifting" refers to a user purchasing digital content called a gift for a specific recipient, and "purchasing" refers to paying a price. In the present invention, the recipient may be a person such as an athlete, artist, or entertainer.

[0021] The device 100 includes a communication unit 101 such as a communication interface, a processing unit 102 such as a processor or CPU, and a storage unit 103 including a storage device or storage medium such as a memory or hard disk, and can be configured by executing a program for performing each process in the processing unit 102. The device 100 may include one or more devices, computers, or servers. The program may include one or more programs and may be recorded on a computer-readable storage medium to form a non-transitory program product. The program may be stored in a storage device or storage medium such as the storage unit 103 or a database 104 accessible from the device 100 via an IP network, and can be executed by the processing unit 102. Data described below as being stored in the storage unit 103 may also be stored in the database 104, and vice versa.

[0022] The following description will be mainly given using an example in which a sports fan makes a gift to an athlete, but the present invention can also be applied to recipients of gifts who are not athletes.

[0023] 2 shows the flow of a method for fans to perform gifting. First, device 100 receives a point issuance request from fan terminal 110 requesting the issuance of points (S201). In response to the point issuance request, device 100 issues points to the fan using fan terminal 110 according to the amount of compensation included in the point issuance request, and stores the points in memory 103 in association with the fan identifier of the fan in the gifting service provided by device 100 (S202). Here, points have been described as a means of payment having financial value that is issued in exchange for payment of compensation, but they may also be issued without requiring payment of compensation.

[0024] The device 100 receives setting information from the administrator terminal 120 as needed (S203). The setting information may include the designation of the player whose reply will be converted into an NFT. Also, although the device 100 receives the setting information after the fan purchases points, this order may be reversed.

[0025] The setting information can be input from the setting information input screen displayed on a web browser on the display screen of the administrator terminal 140 by sending setting information input screen display information in HTML format for displaying a screen for inputting the setting information from the device 100 to the administrator terminal 140, or from the setting information input screen displayed on an application (hereinafter referred to as an "app") installed on the administrator terminal 140 by running the application. Note that the "input screen" can take various forms, such as a web page, modal window, or pop-up window, when displayed on a web browser, and can be one screen of the app when displayed on an app. In either case, any screen that includes an area with an input field for inputting information is considered an input screen, and the same applies to input screens other than the setting information input screen described in this specification.

[0026] Then, the device 100 receives a purchase request for purchasing the gift, in which the gifting target person and gift have been selected, from the fan terminal 110 (S204). The purchase request includes the fan identifier, a target person identifier for identifying the selected target person, and a gift identifier for identifying the selected gift.

[0027] Upon receiving the gift purchase request, the device 100 determines, for example, whether the points required for the gift identified by the gift identifier are equal to or less than the points granted to the fan identified by the fan identifier (S205). If the fan has enough points, the device 100 stores the gift identifier in association with the target person identifier and the fan identifier in the storage unit 103 as a purchase process, and updates the balance of points stored in association with the fan identifier. The balance update can be performed, for example, by subtracting the points required to purchase the gift from the points stored in association with the fan identifier. Storing the gift identifier in association with the target person identifier and the fan identifier in the storage unit 103 records that the fan identified by the fan identifier has given the gift identified by the gift identifier to the target person identified by the target person identifier.

[0028] Although Figures 1 and 2 illustrate the device 100 receiving a gift purchase request from a single fan terminal 110, in reality it will receive multiple purchase requests from multiple fan terminals.

[0029] The device 100 transmits a notification that the gift has been given to the athlete terminal 120 used by the athlete who is the recipient of the gift (S206). The athlete who receives the notification can input a reply to the gift, and if input, reply information including the reply is transmitted from the athlete terminal 120 to the device 100 (S207).

[0030] The reply can be entered, for example, by sending reply input screen display information in HTML format from device 100 to athlete terminal 120 to display a screen for entering a reply, and then using the reply input screen displayed on a web browser on the display screen of athlete terminal 120, or by running an app installed on athlete terminal 120 and using the reply input screen displayed on the app.

[0031] Upon receiving the reply information, the device 100 generates a reply image that includes at least a portion of the reply (S208). FIG. 3A shows an example of a reply image according to one embodiment of the present invention. The reply image 300A includes the player's name 301, at least a portion 302 of the reply entered by the player, the date and time 303 of the reply, and may further include a serial number 304 of the reply by the player. Note that the serial number 304 does not have to be a time-based number; for example, it may be a serial number for the year 2022 or a number within a specified time period.

[0032] Furthermore, reply image 300A may include gifting information 305 about the gift to which the reply was directed. Gifting information 305 may include at least one of the date and time of the gifting, the value of the gifted gift, and an illustration representing the gifted gift. As will be described later, reply image 300A may be traded thereafter, so even if there are comments from fans when they gifted, it is preferable that gifting information 305 not include such personal content.

[0033] In addition, reply image 300A may include an image 306 associated with the player. The player may specify the image 306 on the reply input screen, or the administrator may specify the image 306 for each player on the setting information input screen. If multiple reply images 300A contain the same image 306 that was pre-registered, each reply image can be distinguished by the serial number 304.

[0034] FIG. 3B shows another example of a reply image according to one embodiment of the present invention. Reply image 300B is similar to reply image 300A, but differs in that it includes the full reply entered by the player. Note that the replies shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B are space-filling characters and are not the actual replies. Furthermore, reply image 300A includes image 306 of the player, while reply image 300B includes an image of the player's autograph.

[0035] The generated reply image may be a set of images related to the player, such as a first reply image 300A and a second reply image 300B. Such a set of images may be displayed by a single file or by a set of corresponding files. FIG. 3A generally shows an example of the first reply image 300A displayed on the NFT collection details display screen described below, which includes a selection area 307 for switching between the first reply image 300A and the second reply image 300B.

[0036] The device 100 transmits an NFT granting request to the NFT server 130 to grant an NFT associated with the reply image to the user who made the gift (S209). Details of NFT granting will be described later.

[0037] Then, after receiving notification from the NFT server 130 that the NFT has been granted (S210), the device 100 sends a notification to the fan terminal 110 of the fan who is the NFT recipient that the NFT has been granted as a gifting reward (S211).

[0038] A fan who has been granted an NFT, for example, selects the button 308 labeled "Buy or Sell on Marketplace" from the NFT collection details display screen shown in FIG. 3A by tapping or clicking it, and then makes the necessary input as necessary, thereby transmitting their intention to transfer the NFT to the device 100 (S212).When the specified conditions for transferring the NFT are met (S213), the device 100 sends a transfer request to the NFT server 130 to transfer the NFT (S214).

[0039] Then, after receiving notification from the NFT server 130 that the transfer of the NFT has been completed (S215), the device 100 sends a notification to the player terminal 120 of the player who sent the reply that the NFT associated with the reply image containing at least a part of the reply has been transferred (S216).

[0040] In this way, by generating an image that includes at least a portion of a reply from the gifting recipient and making it possible to notify the recipient when an NFT associated with the image is bought or sold, the financial value of the reply can be visualized, encouraging replies.

[0041] In the above description, a request for granting an NFT is sent to the NFT server 130 and an NFT is granted to the grantee, but the device 100 may also execute the processing required to grant the NFT. Similarly, the device 100 may also execute the processing required to transfer the granted NFT.

[0042] NFT voucher details Figure 4 shows the flow of NFT assignment on an NFT server according to one embodiment of the present invention. First, the NFT server 130 issues an NFT with an issuer address corresponding to an issuer identifier that identifies the athlete who sent the reply or the sports team, sports organization, or other organization to which the athlete belongs, as the owner (S401). Then, the NFT identifier is specified, and the reply image or its hash value, or the address to access the reply image, is registered (S402). This associates the reply image with the NFT identified by the NFT identifier, and, in other words, it is converted into an NFT.

[0043] The NFT server 130 then transfers the ownership of the NFT from the issuer address to a user address corresponding to a user identifier that identifies the grantee user (S403). For example, the issuer address and the user address are public keys in a public key cryptosystem. By transferring the NFT issued with the issuer address as the owner to the grantee user's user address in this way, it becomes possible to verify that the NFT was officially issued, thereby ensuring that the reply image associated with the NFT is a genuine image provided by the issuer player or the organization to which he or she belongs. The verifiability of the NFT and the authenticity of the reply image obtained in this way are maintained even if the NFT is bought and sold on a platform that manages NFTs issued by the NFT server 130 and is then secondary traded.

[0044] Although it has been described that the reply image or its hash value or the address to access the reply image is registered in the NFT after it is issued, depending on the NFT method, it is also possible to issue an NFT with the reply image or its hash value or the address to access the reply image set from the beginning. In other words, it is conceivable that the issuance of an NFT includes the association of the NFT.

[0045] NFT Transfer Details The device 100 may maintain a correspondence between one or more users and one or more NFTs owned by each user. More specifically, the device 100 may maintain a correspondence between one or more user identifiers and one or more NFT identifiers that identify one or more NFTs owned by the user addresses corresponding to each user identifier, or a correspondence between one or more user addresses and one or more NFT identifiers that identify one or more NFTs owned by each user address. In the latter case, it is preferable to maintain a separate correspondence between one or more user identifiers and the user addresses corresponding to each user identifier.

[0046] When the device 100 receives a display request for an NFT collection display screen from the user terminal 110, it can determine one or more NFT identifiers associated with the user identifier included in the display request and transmit to the user terminal 110 display information for an NFT collection display screen in HTML format for displaying one or more NFTs identified by the one or more NFT identifiers. When displayed on a web browser, the NFT collection display screen can adopt various formats, such as a web page, a modal window, or a pop-up window. When displayed on an app, it can be a single screen within the app. In either case, any screen that includes one or more images associated with one or more NFTs can be considered an NFT collection display screen. A screen that displays an overview of one or more NFTs associated with a user can be referred to as an "NFT collection overview display screen," and a screen that displays details of one or more NFTs associated with a user can be referred to as an "NFT collection detail display screen."

[0047] When a user wishes to transfer an NFT they own and that is displayed on the NFT collection display screen, they can select a display element, such as button 308 shown in FIG. 3A, by tapping or clicking it, and then, if necessary, enter the required information to transmit their intention to transfer the NFT to the device 100. The display element displayed on the NFT collection display screen need only be used to indicate their intention to transfer; its selection itself does not necessarily imply an intention to transfer. When the NFT is transferred through the transfer, the device 100 can notify the player terminal 120 of the player who sent the reply included in the reply image associated with the NFT, as described above, that the NFT has been transferred. At this time, the player can be given compensation based on the purchase and sale price of the NFT, which gives financial value to the act of replying and encourages replies.

[0048] It should be noted that in the above-mentioned embodiments, unless there is a description of "only," such as "based on XX only," "depending only on XX," or "in the case of XX only," this specification assumes that additional information may also be taken into consideration. Also, as an example, it should be noted that the description "do b in the case of a" does not necessarily mean "always do b in the case of a" or "do b immediately after a" unless explicitly stated. Furthermore, the description "each a constituting A" does not necessarily mean that A is composed of multiple components, but includes the case where the component is singular.

[0049] Also, just to be clear, even if there is an aspect of a method, program, terminal, device, server, or system (hereinafter referred to as a "method, etc.") that performs an operation different from that described in this specification, each aspect of the present invention is directed to an operation that is identical to one of the operations described in this specification, and the existence of an operation different from that described in this specification does not make the method, etc. outside the scope of each aspect of the present invention.

[0050] Furthermore, the "start" and "end" shown in FIG. 4 are merely examples, and do not necessarily mean that the method according to this embodiment starts at S401 or ends at S403. [Explanation of symbols]

[0051] 100 devices 101 Communications Department 102 Processing section 103 Storage section 104 databases 110 User Terminals 120 Host terminal 130 NFT servers 300A Reply Image 300B Reply Image 301 Player name 302 At least part of the reply typed by the player 303 Date and Time 304 serial number 305 Gifting Information 306 images associated with players 307 Selection Area 308 Button

Claims

1. 1. A method for gifting, comprising: receiving a request for purchasing a gift from a user terminal used by a user, the request including a selection of a person to whom the gift is to be given and the gift; a step of transmitting a notification that the gifting has been performed to a target person terminal used by the target person by the device; generating an image including at least a portion of a reply to the gifting received from the target person terminal by the device; the device delivering to the user an NFT associated with the image; Includes.

2. 2. The method of claim 1 , The step of providing includes: The method includes a step in which the device requests provision of the NFT from an NFT server capable of communicating with the device.

3. 3. The method of claim 2, The step of providing includes: The device requests an NFT server capable of communicating with the device to issue an NFT and associate the image with the NFT, the NFT having an issuer address corresponding to the person or the organization to which the person belongs; the device requests the NFT server to transfer the NFT associated with the image to a user address corresponding to the user; Includes.

4. 4. The method according to claims 1 to 3, The image is A name of the target person; The date and time when the target person entered the reply; The serial number of the reply entered by the person in question; Further includes:

5. 5. The method of claim 4, The images include a pre-registered image associated with the person of interest.

6. 6. The method according to claim 4 or 5, the images are a set of images relating to the person of interest; The NFT is associated with a single file that represents the set of images.

7. 7. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, comprising: The device further includes a step of, in response to receiving an NFT collection display request requesting to display an NFT collection, sending display information to a user terminal that sent the NFT collection display request for displaying an NFT collection display screen including one or more images associated with one or more NFTs identified by one or more NFT identifiers corresponding to a user identifier included in the NFT collection display request.

8. 8. The method of claim 7, The NFT collection display screen includes a display element for indicating an intention to transfer an NFT associated with an image displayed on the NFT collection display screen.

9. A program for causing a computer to execute a method for gifting, the method comprising: receiving a gift purchase request from a user terminal used by a user, the gift purchase request including a selected person to be gifted and the selected gift; sending a notification to a target person terminal used by the target person that the gifting has been performed; generating an image including at least a part of a reply to the gifting received from the target person terminal; providing the user with a NFT associated with the image; Includes.

10. A device for gifting, comprising: receiving a gift purchase request from a user terminal used by the user, the gift purchase request including a selected gift recipient and a selected gift; Sending a notification to the target person terminal used by the target person that the gifting has been performed; The device is configured to generate an image including at least a portion of the reply to the gifting received from the target person terminal, and to grant the user an NFT associated with the image.

Images