Content providing method and system

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method and system for providing content, and more particularly to a method and system for providing content that can more effectively provide information about content serialized on a specific day of the week.

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a method and system for providing content, and more particularly to a method and system for providing content that can more effectively provide information about content serialized on a specific day of the week. [Background technology]

[0002] As technology advances, the use of digital devices is becoming more widespread. In particular, user terminals (e.g., smartphones, tablet PCs, etc.) are equipped with a variety of functions, including not only communication functions such as phone calls and text messages, but also Internet surfing, listening to music, and watching videos.

[0003] As user devices have become more common, the consumption of content provided by user devices such as PCs and mobile phones has increased dramatically, unlike traditional content consumption media. One example is webtoons.

[0004] Here, webtoons are comics that are serialized and distributed via the Internet, and are a compound word of the words web and cartoon.

[0005] As consumption of webtoons continues to increase, various businesses (or webtoon-related service providers) are developing various services to ensure that users (or consumers, subscribers) can continue to use their services.

[0006] Meanwhile, in order to ensure that content such as webtoons is consumed continuously, content provision services serialize content in various ways. For example, specific content is serialized on specific days of the week, encouraging users to visit on specific days of the week to access their preferred content. Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0007] The present invention relates to a content providing method and system capable of more effectively providing a variety of information related to content to a user.

[0008] More specifically, the present invention relates to a content providing method and system that provides a user environment that enables a user to grasp at a glance information related to content serialized on a specific day of the week.

[0009] The present invention also relates to a content providing method and system that provides a user environment that enables a user to intuitively grasp information about popular content. [Means for solving the problem]

[0010] In order to solve the above problem, the content providing method of the present invention includes the steps of identifying content to be serialized on a specific day of the week from among a plurality of contents serialized based on the day of the week, calculating a popularity ranking for each of the identified contents serialized on the specific day of the week, using the popularity ranking to select from the identified contents a content that has been ranked higher and that satisfies a predetermined ranking condition, and providing items corresponding to the identified content serialized on the specific day of the week to a user terminal, and rank increase information regarding the rank increase may be displayed on the items corresponding to the identified content that have been ranked higher.

[0011] In addition, a content providing system according to the present invention may include a storage unit that stores a plurality of contents, and a control unit that identifies a content that is serialized on a specific day of the week from among the plurality of contents, wherein the control unit calculates a popularity ranking for each of the identified contents that are serialized on the specific day of the week, and uses the popularity ranking to select a rank-raising content that satisfies a predetermined ranking condition from among the identified contents, and provides items corresponding to the identified contents that are serialized on the specific day of the week to a user terminal, and rank-raising information regarding the rank increase may be displayed for the items corresponding to the rank-raising content among the items corresponding to the identified contents.

[0012] Furthermore, a program executed by one or more processes in an electronic device according to the present invention and stored on a computer-readable recording medium includes commands for executing the steps of identifying content to be serialized on a specific day of the week from among a plurality of contents serialized based on the day of the week, calculating a popularity ranking for each of the identified contents serialized on the specific day of the week, using the popularity ranking to select from the identified contents content a content that has been ranked higher and that satisfies a predetermined ranking condition, and providing items corresponding to the identified content serialized on the specific day of the week to a user terminal, and rank increase information regarding the rank increase may be displayed on the items corresponding to the identified content, among the items corresponding to the identified content, that correspond to the content that has been ranked higher. Effect of the Invention

[0013] As described above, the content providing method and system according to the present invention provides an intuitive user environment in which information about content serialized on a day of the week basis can be grasped at a glance by collecting and providing information about content serialized on a specific service page.

[0014] Furthermore, the content providing method and system according to the present invention can calculate the popularity ranking of the content serialized on a specific day of the week, and provide information on the popular content to the user using the calculated popularity ranking. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0015] [Figure 1] 1 is a conceptual diagram for explaining a content providing system according to the present invention; [Figure 2a] 1 is a conceptual diagram for explaining a service page provided by the content providing system. FIG. [Figure 2b] 1 is a conceptual diagram for explaining a service page provided by the content providing system. FIG. [Figure 2c] 1 is a conceptual diagram for explaining a service page provided by the content providing system. FIG. [Diagram 3] 2 is a flowchart illustrating a content providing method according to the present invention. [Figure 4a] FIG. 13 is a conceptual diagram for explaining a page on which content information is provided. [Figure 4b] FIG. 13 is a conceptual diagram for explaining a page on which content information is provided. [Figure 4c] FIG. 13 is a conceptual diagram for explaining a page on which content information is provided. [Diagram 5] FIG. 13 is a conceptual diagram for explaining a method for selecting a content that satisfies a preset condition and that increases the ranking. [Figure 6a] FIG. 13 is a conceptual diagram for explaining a method for selecting a content that satisfies a preset condition and that increases the ranking. [Figure 6b] FIG. 13 is a conceptual diagram for explaining a method for selecting a content that satisfies a preset condition and that increases the ranking. [Figure 7a] FIG. 13 is a conceptual diagram for explaining a method for selecting a content that satisfies a preset condition and that increases the ranking. [Figure 7b] FIG. 13 is a conceptual diagram for explaining a method for selecting a content that satisfies a preset condition and that increases the ranking. [Figure 8a] FIG. 13 is a conceptual diagram for explaining a method for selecting a content that satisfies a preset condition and that increases the ranking. [Figure 8b] FIG. 13 is a conceptual diagram for explaining a method for selecting a content that satisfies a preset condition and that increases the ranking. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0016] Hereinafter, the embodiments disclosed in this specification will be described in detail with reference to the attached drawings. The same or similar components are denoted by the same or similar reference numerals regardless of the drawing numbers, and the description thereof will be omitted. The suffixes "module" and "part" of components used in the following description are given or mixed to facilitate the preparation of the specification, and do not have any significance or usefulness in themselves. In addition, when describing the embodiments disclosed in this specification, if it is determined that a specific description of related publicly known technology may obscure the gist of the embodiments disclosed in this specification, the detailed description thereof will be omitted. Note that the attached drawings are merely for the purpose of making the embodiments disclosed in this specification easily understandable, and the technical ideas disclosed in this specification are not limited by the attached drawings, and it should be understood that any modifications, equivalents, or alternatives included in the idea and technical scope of the present invention are included in the present invention.

[0017] Terms including ordinal numbers such as first, second, etc. are used to describe various components, but the components are not limited to the terms. The terms are used only to distinguish one component from another.

[0018] When a component is said to be "coupled" or "connected" to another component, it should be understood that the component may be directly coupled or connected to the other component, and that there may be additional components in between. In contrast, when a component is said to be "directly coupled" or "directly connected" to another component, it should be understood that there are no additional components in between.

[0019] Singular expressions include plural expressions unless otherwise specified.

[0020] As used herein, terms such as "comprise" and "have" are intended to specify the presence of features, numbers, steps, operations, components, parts, or combinations thereof set forth in the specification, but should be understood as not precluding the presence or additional possibility of one or more other features, numbers, steps, operations, components, parts, or combinations thereof.

[0021] The present invention relates to a content providing method and system therefor, and is capable of providing information about content to users (consumers) in various ways in order to effectively guide the users' (consumers') consumption of content.

[0022] The "content providing service" described in this specification can be understood as a term that encompasses services provided by the content providing system 100 according to the present invention. The content providing service can be understood to include not only a service of providing content to the user terminal 200, but also information related to the content and various functions incidental to the use of the content.

[0023] Meanwhile, the content providing system 100 described in the present invention may be a system that provides at least one of various types of content.

[0024] The present invention can be applied to a wide variety of content types, including, for example, at least one of webtoons, web novels, music, e-books, videos, and still images.

[0025] On the other hand, in the present invention, "content" can also be called "work."

[0026] For the sake of convenience, the following description will be given taking webtoons as an example. Here, webtoons is a compound word of web and cartoon, and refers to cartoons or comics provided via the Internet.

[0027] Such content may be composed of at least one sub-content.

[0028] When there are multiple sub-contents, the multiple sub-contents can constitute a content series.

[0029] Here, a series may refer to a continuous project or content.

[0030] In the present invention, in order to avoid confusion between the terms "content" and "subcontent," "subcontent" can be called "episode." That is, in the present invention, "subcontent" and "episode" can be used interchangeably.

[0031] In addition, in the present invention, "using (or consuming, viewing) content" can be understood as using (or consuming, viewing) an episode (or sub-content).

[0032] Hereinafter, the content providing system 100 will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, and the content providing service provided by the content providing system 100 will be described in detail. Fig. 1 is a conceptual diagram for explaining the content providing system according to the present invention, and Figs. 2a, 2b and 2c are conceptual diagrams for explaining service pages provided by the content providing system.

[0033] As shown in FIG. 1, a content providing system 100 may include at least one of a communication unit 110, a storage unit 120, and a control unit .

[0034] Here, the communication unit 110 serves to provide (or transmit) content or various information related to the content to the user terminal 200 via wired or wireless communication.

[0035] As shown in Fig. 1, the user terminal 200 is not limited in type, and may be a mobile phone, a smart phone, a notebook computer, a laptop computer, a slate PC, a tablet PC, an ultrabook, a desktop computer, a digital broadcast terminal, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a portable multimedia player (PMP), a navigation system, a wearable device (e.g., a smartwatch, smart glass, a head mounted display (HMD)), etc. In the present invention, the user terminal may be mixed with a user terminal device, an electronic device, etc.

[0036] Furthermore, the communication unit 110 can receive user input related to content usage from the user terminal 200. In the present invention, based on the user input received by the communication unit 110, various services related to content usage can be provided to the user.

[0037] Next, the storage unit 120 may be configured to store various information related to content usage. Such storage unit 120 may include at least one of a content server (content DB (data base)) 100a including information related to a plurality of contents, and an AI Recommender System (AI Recommender DB (data base)) 100b including information used for selecting user-customized recommended content based on artificial intelligence.

[0038] The information on the content provision service of the present invention can be stored in at least a part of the content server 100a and the AI ​​recommendation server 100b, and the present invention does not have any particular limitations on the method. Therefore, in the following, the storage unit 120, the content server 100a, and the AI ​​recommendation server 100b can be referred to as the storage unit 120 without being separately distinguished.

[0039] In the following, the content server and the content DB are not differentiated but are collectively referred to as the content server, and the AI ​​recommendation server and the AI ​​recommendation DB are not differentiated but are collectively referred to as the AI ​​recommendation server. In other words, it goes without saying that in the present invention, the content server can be understood as the content DB, and the AI ​​recommendation server can be understood as the AI ​​recommendation DB.

[0040] In addition, the content server 100a and the artificial intelligence recommendation server 100b that store a plurality of contents may exist as separate components from the storage unit 120. In this case, the content providing system 100 according to the present invention can provide the user terminal 200 with information stored in at least one of the content server 100a and the artificial intelligence recommendation server 100b.

[0041] Meanwhile, the storage unit 120 may store history information associated with a user account that has subscribed to the content providing service according to the present invention.

[0042] Here, the "history information" may include various information of a user account related to the content providing service.

[0043] Specifically, the history information may include at least one of the following: i) history information regarding the content (or sub-content, episode) used (or viewed, owned) by the user account (or the user terminal 200 to which the user account is logged in) (e.g., the title of the viewed content, the episode number of the viewed episode, viewing date and time information, etc.); ii) feedback information of the user account regarding specific content (e.g., review information, comment information, rating information, reaction information regarding content recommendations (history of selecting the close function icon of a pop-up window related to specific content)); iii) usage right related information (the number of usage rights held, the type of usage rights held, the type of usage rights used, the date and time of use of the usage rights, a breakdown of the events for which the usage rights were issued, etc.).

[0044] In the present invention, content of interest to a user can be customized and recommended based on the user's preferences, the user's content usage (or consumption) pattern, etc., based on history information matched to a user account. The user can easily select and use content by referring to the recommended content.

[0045] In the present invention, a history server (not shown) (or a history DB (data base)) may be included, and the history server (not shown) may store history information including various information regarding the usage rights assigned to a user account (or various information regarding the use of the usage rights).

[0046] The history server that stores multiple pieces of history information may exist as one component of the storage unit 120, or may exist as a separate component from the storage unit 120. When the history server exists separately from the storage unit 120, the content providing system 100 can recommend content to a user account by referring to the history server.

[0047] The storage unit 120 may be configured to store a plurality of contents and information related thereto that can be provided by the content providing system 100 according to the present invention.

[0048] The information related to the plurality of contents may include ranking information related to each of the plurality of contents. The ranking information may be matched to each of the plurality of contents and stored in the storage unit 120.

[0049] The ranking information regarding the content may be stored by accumulating the rankings (or ranking information) at each of a plurality of points in time when the rankings are calculated. In other words, the rankings of the content may be managed as a ranking history so that the history of changes in the rankings can be understood.

[0050] The ranking of the content is based on various criteria, and can be calculated according to various criteria, such as popularity, number of views, or payment.

[0051] Next, the control unit 130 performs a series of processes related to the content providing service, and plays a role in controlling the above-mentioned components.

[0052] It goes without saying that the role of the control unit 130 may be performed by at least one of the content server 100a and the artificial intelligence recommendation server 100b.

[0053] As an example, among the roles performed by the control unit 130, a series of processes for providing content may be performed by the content server 100a, and a series of processes for selecting user-customized recommended content based on artificial intelligence may be configured to be performed by the artificial intelligence recommendation server 100b.

[0054] However, in the present invention, there is no particular limitation on the entity that plays a role related to the content provision service. Therefore, in the following, the control unit 130, the content server 100a, and the AI ​​recommendation server 100b are not separately distinguished, and can be referred to as the control unit 130.

[0055] In other words, it goes without saying that the functions described below as being performed by the control unit 130 can be performed by at least one of the content server 100a and the artificial intelligence recommendation server 100b.

[0056] Meanwhile, the control unit 130 according to the present invention may calculate the ranking of the contents provided by the content providing system 100. As described above, the ranking of the contents may be calculated based on various criteria such as popularity, payment, number of views, etc.

[0057] The control unit 130 can calculate the ranking of each of the multiple contents in unit period units. Here, the unit period is a period set under the control of the administrator or the control unit 130, and may be, for example, one week. In this case, the control unit 130 can calculate the ranking of the contents in unit of one week.

[0058] Meanwhile, at least some of the contents according to the present invention may be set so that episodes are uploaded (serialized) on a specific day of the week. For example, some of the contents registered in the content providing system 100 may be set so that episodes are uploaded on Mondays, and the other part may be set so that episodes are uploaded on Tuesdays.

[0059] Information regarding upload criteria for each of the plurality of contents may be matched and stored for each of the plurality of contents. The control unit 130 may upload an episode of the content according to the upload criteria based on such matching information. Here, "upload" may mean a state in which the corresponding episode is available to a user of the content providing service. Meanwhile, the upload criteria may be a criterion regarding the day of the week on which the content is uploaded. The matching information may include information regarding the day of the week on which the matched content is uploaded. The control unit 130 may upload the episode of the content on the day of the week based on the matching information.

[0060] Meanwhile, the control unit 130 may calculate the rank of the content on a day (specific day) specified for uploading the content. For example, if a first content exists that is set to be uploaded on Wednesday, the control unit 130 may calculate the rank of the first content on Wednesday, which is the current time when the first content is uploaded.

[0061] As another example, if there is a second content that is set to be uploaded on Thursday, the control unit 130 may calculate the ranking of the second content on Thursday, which is the current time when the second content is uploaded.

[0062] Meanwhile, the control unit 130 can set various comparison targets for calculating the ranking.

[0063] As an example, the control unit 130 may calculate a relative ranking among all the contents registered in the content providing system 100. For example, when the total number of contents registered in the content providing system 100 is 100 and the ranking of a specific content corresponding to a ranking calculation target is calculated based on the popularity of the content, the control unit 130 may calculate the “popularity” ranking of the specific content among the 100 contents.

[0064] As another example, the control unit 130 may calculate the ranking among contents serialized on a specific day of the week, instead of all contents registered in the content providing system 100. For example, when there are 30 pieces of content serialized on a specific day of the week among the pieces of content registered in the content providing system 100, the control unit 130 may calculate the ranking of the 30 pieces of content. When calculating the ranking among pieces of content based on the popularity of the content, the control unit 130 may calculate the "popularity" ranking of the particular piece of content among the 30 pieces of content. In this case, the ranking of the particular piece of content is the popularity ranking among the pieces of content serialized on the particular day of the week (e.g., Thursday).

[0065] In this manner, the control unit 130 can provide the user with a content selection guide by calculating the ranking of the contents provided by the content providing system 100 and effectively providing the user with information regarding the calculated ranking.

[0066] Meanwhile, as shown in Figures 2a, 2b and 2c, for a content provision service, the control unit 130 can control one of a plurality of service pages (or "screens") 310, 320, 330 containing information related to the content to be output on the user terminal 200.

[0067] Such service pages 310, 320, and 330 can be controlled to be output on the user terminal 200 via an application. In this case, the application can execute at least a part of the functions executed in the content providing system 100 described above.

[0068] The service pages 310, 320, 330 provided in the present invention vary depending on the type of information contained in each service page 310, 320, 330 and the functions executed. When any one specific service page is called from among the various service pages 310, 320, 330, the control unit 130 can provide the specific service page to the user terminal 200.

[0069] For example, the multiple service pages include i) a page that is basically provided when using the content provision service (which may also be referred to as a "basic service page," "basic page," "main page," "home screen," etc.) (310 in FIG. 2a), ii) a page including an episode list for items corresponding to multiple episodes that make up a specific content (which may also be referred to as a "content entry page" or "episode list page") (320 in FIG. 2b), iii) a page that provides a specific episode of the content (which may also be referred to as a "content provision page") (330 in FIG. 2c), vi) a page that provides information regarding a user account (which may also be referred to as a "user page") (not shown), v) a page including a usage right issuance service function (not shown), and vi) a page including a digital currency charge service function (not shown).

[0070] In addition, in the present invention, a service page more directly related to the provision of content, such as the "content entry page 320" and the "content providing page 330", can also be called a "content page". In other words, a "content page" can be understood as a page that provides various functions related to the provision of content, in addition to any one of the above-mentioned "content entry page 320" and "content providing page 330".

[0071] Meanwhile, the service pages listed above are merely examples, and the service pages according to the present invention include various service pages that contain necessary information or perform functions related to the content providing service.

[0072] When the control unit 130 receives a request for a specific service page from the user terminal 200, the control unit 130 can control the requested specific service page to be output on the user terminal 200.

[0073] For example, when an application is executed or a user input to a specific icon (e.g., a "home button") is applied, the control unit 130 can provide a service page (basic service page) 310 shown in Fig. 2a on the user terminal 200. Such basic service page 310 may include information (e.g., thumbnail, work name, author name, number of hits, recommended content, etc.) about at least one piece of content 311, 312, 313 provided by the content providing service.

[0074] A user can select an area from the basic service page 310 that corresponds to information about a particular piece of content 311 and request to view the particular piece of content 311 .

[0075] That is, a viewing event (or a viewing request) for content may occur based on an action in which a particular content 311 is selected on the user terminal 200.

[0076] The control unit 130 can receive a viewing event (or a viewing request) for a specific content 311 from the user terminal via the communication unit 110.

[0077] Meanwhile, when the content providing system according to the present invention is an application, the communication unit 110 serves as an interface unit that receives a selection signal from the user terminal 200. That is, when a specific content 311 is selected by the user on the user terminal 200, the communication unit 110 serves to receive a selection signal corresponding to the user's selection on the user terminal 200.

[0078] Meanwhile, when a viewing request for specific content is received from the user terminal 200, the control unit 130 can provide a content entry page 320 on the user terminal, including an episode list 320a for multiple episodes that make up the specific content, as shown in FIG. 2b.

[0079] As shown in FIG. 2b, episode list 320 may include multiple episode items 321-326.

[0080] Here, the multiple episode items 321 to 326 are configured to respectively correspond to multiple episodes that make up a particular content.

[0081] When the control unit 130 receives a selection of a particular content 311, as shown in FIG. 2a, it can provide on the user terminal 200 a list 320a including a plurality of episode items corresponding to a plurality of episodes included in the particular content based on the selection, as shown in FIG. 2b.

[0082] From the content entry page 320, a user can select an area corresponding to information about a particular piece of content 311 and request to view a particular episode (eg, "Episode 2") 322.

[0083] Based on a viewing request for a specific episode of a specific content received from the user terminal 200, the control unit 130 can determine that a viewing event for a specific episode of a specific content (e.g., episode 2 of “Freaking Love”) has occurred.

[0084] As shown in FIG. 2c, the control unit 130 can provide the user terminal 200 with a content provision page 330 including episode content information 330a, 330b corresponding to the content of the specific episode based on the occurrence of a viewing event for a specific episode of specific content.

[0085] The episode content information 330a, 330b described in the present invention can be understood as information that provides content corresponding to an episode by creating and processing it in a digital format such as text, code, audio, image, video, etc.

[0086] As an example, as shown in FIG. 2c(a), episode content information 330a of novel content can be understood as information consisting of text, illustration images, and the like.

[0087] As another example, as shown in (b) of FIG. 2c, episode content (or episode content information) 330b of webtoon content can be understood as information consisting of at least one of static images, dynamic images (videos), and text.

[0088] In the present invention, the term "episode content" can be used interchangeably with "sub-content content."

[0089] On the other hand, the control unit 130 can determine, based on a viewing request for a specific episode 311 of a specific content received from the user terminal 200, whether the user logged in to the user terminal 200 has viewing authority for the specific episode 311 that has been requested to be viewed.

[0090] A user's viewing rights for a particular episode may be related to the product type of the particular episode.

[0091] The episodes provided in the present invention may be configured as either a "free product type" or a "paid product type."

[0092] A "free product type episode" means an episode that is available to a user immediately without the user having to pay for digital currency, coupons, viewing tickets (or usage rights), etc., to view (or use) the episode.

[0093] When the product type of the specific episode requested to be viewed is a free product type, the control unit 130 determines that the user account logged in to the user terminal 200 has the authority to view the specific episode, and can provide the specific episode (or episode information) via the user terminal 200.

[0094] In contrast, an "episode of the paid product type" means an episode that can only be used if the user makes a payment in the form of digital currency (electronic money), a coupon, a usage right (or viewing ticket), etc. in order to view (or use) the episode.

[0095] When the product type of the specific episode requested to be viewed is a paid product type, the control unit 130 determines whether the user account logged in to the user terminal 200 has digital currency, usage rights, etc. to view the specific episode, and if digital currency, usage rights, etc. exist, it determines that the user account has viewing authority and can provide the specific episode (or episode information) via the user terminal 200.

[0096] Here, the "usage right (or viewing ticket)" can be understood as something that can be used to view (or lend or hold) episodes of a paid product type provided by the content providing system 100 without paying with digital currency. The usage right described in this invention can be used interchangeably with a (free) holding right, a (free) lending right, a coupon, etc.

[0097] The control unit 130 can provide (or allocate or issue) usage rights to a user account based on a particular event.

[0098] The event for granting the usage right is set by an administrator of the content providing system 100, or is set in various ways based on user history information linked to the user account by the control unit 130. As an example, the control unit 130 may grant the usage right to the user account through a specific service page at a preset time (e.g., 10 p.m. every night).

[0099] The control unit 130 can issue (or provide, allocate, or allocate) the usage right to the user account by storing the usage right (or information related to the usage right) in the storage unit 120 in association with the user account.

[0100] Meanwhile, "digital currency" is a form of currency used in a digital format (either stored in a computer or used over a network) and can also be called "cyber money." Digital currency refers to currency whose monetary value is stored in electronic form.

[0101] The digital currency may be stored in electronic form on the control unit 130 or a server associated therewith.

[0102] Such digital currency may be stored in association with a user account. That is, the user may have as much digital currency as he or she has purchased in association with the user account.

[0103] Such digital currencies are used in economic consumption activities, and examples of digital currencies include social currencies, Internet coupons, mobile coupons, and game money.

[0104] On the other hand, the places where the digital currency can be used vary depending on the business that issued it.

[0105] For example, digital currency issued by Company A can only be used on the service platform (e.g., Shopping Mall A) provided by Company A. Furthermore, if Company A operates multiple service platforms, the digital currency issued by Company A can be used in common across multiple service platforms in accordance with Company A's policies.

[0106] In addition, such digital currencies can be shared across the service platforms of different operators through partnerships between the operators.

[0107] Furthermore, digital currency is called by various terms, and the terms are determined by the business operator. For example, digital currency is called by arbitrary names such as beans, acorns, corn, etc. In the description and drawings of the present invention, such digital currency is called "cookies (or coins)". Therefore, in the present invention, the term "cookies" is used together with the term digital currency, and the term "cookies" can be understood as digital currency.

[0108] Digital currencies, on the other hand, can be purchased through electronics settlement (payment).

[0109] "Electronics settlement (payment)" as described in this invention means that a user (or consumer) pays for the purchase of goods or services using a user terminal 200 connected to a program or function that enables the transaction of currency having monetary value.

[0110] Such electronic payment can be understood to include all online payments, such as card payments, points payments, and account transfers.

[0111] Meanwhile, in the present invention, "purchasing digital currency by electronic payment" can also be expressed as "charging digital currency." That is, a user can "purchase" or "charge" digital currency by electronic payment. Digital currency purchased or charged in this way may exist in conjunction with a user account.

[0112] Meanwhile, the control unit 130 controls the episode list 320a output on the user terminal 200 to include episode product type information 321a to 326a, thereby enabling the user to intuitively recognize the product type of the episode.

[0113] The control unit 130 can output episode product type information (or graphic objects) 321a to 326a to each area of ​​the episode items 321 to 326 constituting the episode list 320a according to the episode product type.

[0114] First, the control unit 130 can include first information ("#") 321a, 322a, 323a indicating that the episode is free in the items 321, 322, 323 corresponding to the free product type episode. When there is a request to view a free product type episode, the control unit 130 does not determine whether the user account has the usage authority (or usage right, digital currency).

[0115] Next, the control unit 130 can include second information (e.g., “unlock”) 324a, 325a different from the first information in episode items 324, 325 corresponding to episodes that are paid product types and for which paid episode tickets can be used.

[0116] In this manner, the control unit 130 can cause a region of an item corresponding to a paid episode to include a graphic object indicating that the paid episode viewing coupon allocated to the particular user account can be used.

[0117] Furthermore, the control unit 130 may include third information 326a, which is different from the first and second information, in episode items 326 corresponding to episodes that are paid product type episodes and for which paid episode tickets cannot be used. Here, the third information may include monetary information (or electronic currency information, for example, 5 cookies or 5 coins) that can be used to purchase the corresponding paid episode.

[0118] Furthermore, although not shown, the control unit 130 can control so that episode status information is output in the area where the episode product type information 321a to 326a is output. Specifically, the control unit 130 may include at least one of information on whether there is a history of using the usage right of a particular episode (e.g., "used"), information indicating that the episode is a paid episode that has already been purchased (or viewed or used) (e.g., "purchased"), and information on the usage period (or usage deadline) of the particular episode (e.g., "1 day(s) left") based on the history information of the user account.

[0119] As described above, the control unit 130 can display product type information or status information of an episode for each item corresponding to the episode. Therefore, the user can intuitively predict the usage conditions or usage rights required to use the episode, based on only the information included in the episode list.

[0120] On the other hand, the present invention provides a content providing method and system that can provide various information related to content more effectively, and in particular, can provide a user environment that enables a user to grasp at a glance information related to content that is serialized on a specific day of the week.

[0121] The present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Figure 3 is a flow chart for explaining a content providing method according to the present invention, and Figures 4a, 4b and 4c are conceptual diagrams for explaining a page where content information is provided. Figures 5, 6a, 6b, 7a, 7b, 8a and 8b are conceptual diagrams for explaining ranking-increasing contents that satisfy preset conditions.

[0122] First, in the content providing method of the content providing service according to the present invention, a step of specifying a content to be serialized on a specific day of the week from among a plurality of contents available through the content providing system can be performed (S310).

[0123] The content providing system according to the present invention can upload different episodes of content for each particular day of the week, thereby inducing users to use the content providing service across various days of the week.

[0124] The storage unit 120 may store and exist information on contents in which new episodes are serialized (or uploaded) for different days of the week. For example, the storage unit 120 may store and exist serialization information (upload information) on a first group of contents in which new episodes are serialized (or uploaded) on Mondays, serialization information (upload information) on a second group of contents in which new episodes are serialized (or uploaded) on Tuesdays, serialization information (upload information) on a third group of contents in which new episodes are serialized (or uploaded) on Wednesdays, serialization information (upload information) on a fourth group of contents in which new episodes are serialized (or uploaded) on Thursdays, serialization information (upload information) on a fifth group of contents in which new episodes are serialized (or uploaded) on Fridays, serialization information (upload information) on a sixth group of contents in which new episodes are serialized (or uploaded) on Saturdays, and serialization information (upload information) on a seventh group of contents in which new episodes are serialized (or uploaded) on Sundays. Hereinafter, the terms "serialization" and "upload" will be unified as the term "serialization".

[0125] In this manner, the storage unit 120 stores serialization information regarding content for which new episodes are serialized for each day of the week, and the control unit 130 can identify the content that is serialized on a particular day of the week based on the serialization information.

[0126] Meanwhile, the time when the content to be serialized on a specific day of the week is specified may vary widely. For example, the control unit 130 may specify the content to be serialized on a specific day of the week based on a preset time. Here, the preset time may be 0:00 every day, which is the time when the date changes.

[0127] As another example, the time to identify the content to be serialized on a specific day of the week may correspond to a time when a request for information on the content to be serialized on a specific day of the week is received from a user terminal. The control unit 130 can identify the content to be serialized on a specific day of the week based on a user request received via a web page or application that provides a content providing service.

[0128] As yet another example, content that is serialized on a particular day of the week may be identified based on an administrator setting the days of the week on which the content is serialized.

[0129] Meanwhile, the identification of contents serialized on a particular day of the week can be used to classify and provide contents based on the day of the week on which new episodes are serialized. That is, the control unit 130 can collect contents having episodes newly serialized for each day of the week for each day of the week and provide them to the user. Thus, the user can collect and provide information on the newly serialized contents for each day of the week through a single page corresponding to each day of the week.

[0130] In this way, in the content providing service according to the present invention, a plurality of service pages each matched for a different day of the week can be provided. When the control unit 130 receives a selection of a specific day of the week from the user terminal, the control unit 130 can provide the page matched for the specific day of the week to the user terminal. In addition, the control unit 130 can provide information on content for which a new episode will be serialized on the specific day of the week to the matched page.

[0131] In other words, the control unit 130 can provide items (or lists) corresponding to the specified content so that a new episode is serialized on a specific day of the week on a specific service page matched on the specific day of the week among multiple service pages matched on different days of the week.

[0132] Meanwhile, when a menu that provides information about new episodes serialized by day of the week is selected from the user terminal among the menus of the content providing service, the control unit 130 may provide the user terminal with a service page including information about content for which new episodes are serialized on a specific day of the week. Here, the control unit 130 may preferentially provide the user terminal with a page for the day of the week corresponding to the time when the menu was selected among the service pages that are matched to different days of the week. For example, when the time when the menu was selected is "Wednesday," the control unit 130 may provide the user terminal with a service page that collects information about content for which new episodes are serialized on Wednesday.

[0133] The control unit 130 can classify information about the content by day of the week based on the serialization information about the content of the first to seventh groups described above, and provide the information to the user terminal.

[0134] Next, in the present invention, a process of calculating the rank of the content may be performed (S320). The control unit 130 may calculate the rank of the content based on various criteria.

[0135] Here, the "rank" of the content can be set in various ways. For example, the rank of the content may be the "popularity rank" of the content. That is, the control unit 130 can provide information about the content to the user in order of popularity by calculating the popularity rank of the content.

[0136] Meanwhile, in the present invention, the criteria for "popular content" can be defined in various ways. For example, popular content can be determined based on various judgment indicators, such as the number of times the content is viewed by users in a content providing service, the number of times a paid payment is made, or the amount of a paid payment. In the present invention, the indicator for calculating "popularity" is not particularly limited, and it is assumed that there is a preset judgment indicator.

[0137] Meanwhile, in the present invention, it goes without saying that the order of contents can be based on various criteria other than "popularity", such as update order, star rating order (or rating score order), number of hits, etc. For the sake of convenience, the following description will be based on "popularity", but the criteria can be changed in various ways.

[0138] On the other hand, when determining the ranks between contents, the control unit 130 can specify various groups to be compared in calculating the ranks.

[0139] As an example, the control unit 130 may calculate a relative ranking among all the contents registered in the content providing system 100. For example, if the total number of contents registered in the content providing system 100 is 100 and the ranking is calculated based on the popularity of the contents, the control unit 130 may calculate a popularity ranking among the 100 contents.

[0140] As another example, the control unit 130 may calculate the rankings of contents serialized on a specific day of the week, instead of all contents registered in the content providing system 100. For example, when there are 30 pieces of content serialized on a specific day of the week among the contents registered in the content providing system 100, the control unit 130 may calculate the rankings of the 30 pieces of content.

[0141] In this way, the control unit 130 can set various ranges for which rankings are calculated. For example, the first range corresponds to all content that can be provided by the above-mentioned content providing service, and the second range corresponds to content for which new episodes are serialized on a specific day of the week. In this case, the control unit 130 can calculate rankings between different ranges of content classified by different days of the week.

[0142] Meanwhile, the control unit 130 can calculate the popularity ranking of the contents based on different classification targets. In this case, the classification targets are classified based on the characteristics of the users who use the contents, and are various indices that can distinguish the characteristics of the users, such as the users' gender, age (age range), and occupation.

[0143] For example, the control unit 130 may calculate an integrated popularity ranking of content without distinguishing between objects, as shown in Fig. 4a. In this case, the control unit 130 may calculate the popularity ranking of content for all users.

[0144] As another example, the control unit 130 may calculate a popularity ranking of a specific target (e.g., female or male) based on the specific target as shown in Figures 4b and 4c. For example, the control unit 130 may calculate a popularity ranking of females for all content or for each of content serialized on a specific day of the week. The control unit 130 may also calculate a popularity ranking of males for all content or for each of content serialized on a specific day of the week.

[0145] Therefore, even if the type of content provided on the service page is the same, the position or order in which items corresponding to the content are arranged on the service page will differ depending on the criterion used to calculate the popularity ranking.

[0146] For example, a service page matched by day of the week may provide information on contents for which new episodes are serialized by day of the week. For example, a specific service page matched to a specific day of the week may provide items corresponding to the contents specified to be serialized on the specific day of the week. Here, on the specific service page matched to a specific day of the week, the items corresponding to the contents specified to be serialized on the specific day of the week may be sequentially arranged according to a popularity ranking based on any one of a plurality of sorting criteria.

[0147] Here, the plurality of sorting criteria may refer to objects taken into consideration for calculating the popularity ranking described above. For example, among the plurality of sorting criteria, a first criterion may correspond to an integrated popularity ranking that does not distinguish objects, a second criterion may correspond to a popularity ranking among women, and a third criterion may correspond to a popularity ranking among men.

[0148] Meanwhile, the control unit 130 may provide items corresponding to contents on service pages 400a, 400b, and 400c according to popularity ranking based on sorting criteria selected at the user's request, as shown in FIGS. 4a, 4b, and 4c.

[0149] As shown in Figure 4a, items (e.g., 410, 420, 430) corresponding to content may include information about the content, which may include at least one of an image (or thumbnail image) corresponding to the content, a title of the content, an author, and a rating.

[0150] Meanwhile, in the present invention, a process of selecting a rank-raising content that satisfies a preset rank condition (or a preset rank-raising condition) using the rank calculated in step S320 can be performed (S330).

[0151] As described above, when providing an item corresponding to the content on the service page, the control unit 130 may further include rank increase information in the item corresponding to the content selected as the rank increase content. In this case, the information on the content may further include the rank increase information. The control unit 130 may output the rank increase information for the content item for which the rank increase information exists.

[0152] For example, as shown in Fig. 4a, the control unit 130 may select, as a rank-increasing content, a content that satisfies a previously set rank condition among contents in which new episodes are serialized on a specific day of the week (e.g., Thursday), and may further include rank-increasing information 411, 431 in the items (e.g., 410, 430) corresponding to the selected rank-increasing content. That is, the items 410, 430 of the content selected as the rank-increasing content further include rank-increasing information 411, 431 that is not included in the item 420 of the content not selected as the rank-increasing content.

[0153] Meanwhile, as described above, the criteria for calculating the popularity ranking differs depending on the target, so the contents that satisfy the pre-set ranking conditions also differ depending on the target. For example, as shown in Figures 4b and 4c, the popularity ranking for a first target (e.g., "women") is different from the popularity ranking for a second target (e.g., "men"), and in that case, the content targets that satisfy the pre-set ranking conditions are also different. For example, in the case of a first target (ex: women), the contents of the items corresponding to the reference numbers 440 and 460 are the contents that satisfy the pre-set ranking conditions, and in the case of a second target (ex: men), the contents of the items corresponding to the reference numbers 470 and 490 are the contents that satisfy the pre-set ranking conditions.

[0154] Meanwhile, the ranking increase information may be represented in various ways and may be represented by a graphic object, which is a visual image. In this case, the graphic object (ex: 411, see FIG. 4A) may overlap at least a part of the item (ex: 410, see FIG. 4A) corresponding to the ranking increase information as shown. The graphic object corresponding to the ranking increase information may include guidance information indicating the reason why the ranking increase content selected as the ranking increase content was selected as the ranking increase content. For example, the guidance information may include the reason why the ranking increase content was selected as the ranking increase content, such as how many steps the ranking has increased (ex: the ranking has increased three steps!), how long the ranking has continuously increased (ex: the ranking has increased for three consecutive weeks!), etc.

[0155] In this manner, the control unit 130, when providing items of content, may be arranged on the service page according to a particular criterion, where the particular criterion may be, for example, the popularity ranking of each of the pieces of content.

[0156] Meanwhile, when the calculated rankings (e.g., popularity rankings) of the respective contents satisfy a predetermined ranking condition, the control unit 130 may select the content satisfying the ranking increase condition as a ranking increase content. Also, the control unit 130 may display a graphic object indicating that the content is a ranking increase content that satisfies the predetermined ranking condition in an item of the content selected as a ranking increase content.

[0157] Meanwhile, as shown in FIG. 5, the control unit 130 can calculate the rankings for different criteria (for example, overall popularity order, female popularity order, male popularity order) and determine whether the ranking of the content satisfies the ranking increase condition for each criterion. For example, the control unit 130 can determine whether the content (work) "Mysterious World" satisfies the preset ranking conditions for each of the overall popularity order based on all users, the female popularity order based on female users, and the male popularity order based on male users. In addition, using the determination result, it can determine whether to further include ranking increase information in the item of the content (ex: "Mysterious World") in a service page arranged according to each criterion. For example, if the content satisfies the preset ranking condition in the overall popularity order, the item corresponding to the content (ex: "Mysterious World") may further include ranking increase information in the service page in which the items corresponding to the content are arranged in the overall popularity order.

[0158] In the following, we will explain in more detail the method (or logic) for selecting content that satisfies pre-set ranking conditions, assuming that the ranking of content is calculated based on any one of various criteria.

[0159] In the present invention, the preset ranking condition may be a condition regarding whether or not the popularity ranking of the content has increased at a plurality of different points in time. More specifically, the preset ranking condition may be a condition regarding whether or not the popularity ranking of the content has increased by a preset range or more when comparing a specific point in time at which the popularity ranking of the content is calculated with a point in time of at least one unit period in the past based on the specific point in time.

[0160] Here, the content to be judged as satisfying the preset ranking condition may be content specified under the control of the control unit 130 or an administrator, or may be content specified so that new episodes are serialized on a specific day of the week.

[0161] The control unit 130 can identify contents provided on the same service page in order to collect and display content items on the service page, and determine whether the identified contents satisfy a preset ranking condition. For example, the content items included in the same service page may be items corresponding to contents serialized on the same day of the week. In this case, the control unit 130 can determine whether there is content that satisfies the preset ranking condition among the contents serialized on the same day of the week. As described above with reference to FIG. 5, the control unit 130 can determine whether the contents satisfy the preset ranking condition for each criterion (e.g., overall popularity, female popularity, male popularity).

[0162] Meanwhile, when the popularity ranking of a content (or a specified content) at a specific time point has increased by or above the preset range from the popularity ranking at the past time point, the control unit 130 may select the content whose ranking has increased by or above the preset range as a ranking-increased content.

[0163] In addition, if the popularity ranking of a piece of content at a particular time point has not increased by the predetermined range or more from the popularity ranking at the past time point, the control unit 130 may not select the piece of content whose ranking has not increased by the predetermined range or more as a piece of content whose ranking has not increased by the predetermined range or more.

[0164] Here, the preset range can be set in various ways, for example, it may be a "three-level" range of rank increase. For example, if a particular content that was ranked 4th at a past time point is ranked 1st at a particular time point, the particular content can be expressed as having increased in rank by three levels. In this case, since the rank of the particular content has increased by the preset range, it is a content that satisfies the preset rank condition, i.e., it is selected as a rank-increased content.

[0165] Meanwhile, the popularity ranking at the specific time and past time when the popularity of the content is calculated may correspond to the popularity ranking on a specific day of the week on which the content is serialized. Here, the specific time may correspond to the current time, and the past time may correspond to a time a unit period before the current time. The unit period may correspond to one week. For example, the specific time may be a day of the week corresponding to today (e.g., Wednesday), and the past time may be a day of the week one week ago based on today (e.g., Wednesday one week ago based on today).

[0166] The control unit 130 can compare the current ranking with the ranking from last week to determine whether the ranking of the content satisfies a preset ranking condition. Such a change in the ranking of the content can be usefully utilized when collecting and displaying contents based on the day of the week.

[0167] In this way, the control unit 130 can compare the current ranking with last week's ranking, determine whether the ranking of the content has increased by a preset range, and if it has increased by the preset range, select the content as a content whose ranking has increased. In this case, the control unit 130 can subtract the current ranking from the past ranking, and then determine whether the subtracted value is equal to or greater than a specific value (e.g., 3 levels) corresponding to the preset range. Also, if the subtracted value is equal to or greater than the specific value, the content can be selected as a content whose ranking has increased.

[0168] 5, the first content "Mysterious World" has increased in rank by three levels, which satisfies a preset range, compared to last week, based on the overall popularity ranking (change from 4th to 1st), so the first content is selected as a content that has increased in rank based on the overall popularity ranking. On the other hand, the first content "Mysterious World" has not increased in rank by a preset range based on the female popularity ranking (same as 4th to 4th) and the male popularity ranking (drop from 4th to 5th), so the first content is not selected as a content that has increased in rank based on the female popularity ranking and the male popularity ranking.

[0169] As another example, the second content "Weekend" has increased in rank by three or more levels, which meets the preset range, based on the overall popularity criteria (changed from 10th to 6th) and the female popularity criteria (changed from 5th to 2nd), so the second content is selected as a content that has increased in rank based on the overall popularity criteria and the female popularity criteria. On the other hand, based on the male popularity criteria (changed from 7th to 5th), the second content has increased in rank by only two levels, which does not meet the preset range, so it is not selected as a content that has increased in rank based on the male popularity criteria.

[0170] Furthermore, the pre-set ranking condition may be related to whether or not the ranking of the content has risen over multiple points in time.

[0171] When the rank of a content has risen continuously for a plurality of past time points set in advance, the control unit 130 may determine the content as a rank-rising content. The control unit 130 may select the content whose rank has risen continuously for a plurality of past time points set in advance as a rank-rising content. Here, the range of the plurality of past time points may be determined in advance. For example, the control unit 130 may select the content whose rank has risen continuously for three or more past time points up to the current time point as a rank-rising content.

[0172] Meanwhile, the multiple time points may be past time points separated by at least one unit period from the current time point. For example, the multiple past time points may include i) a first past time point (e.g., one week before the present) corresponding to the unit period (e.g., one week) before the specific time point corresponding to the current time point, ii) a second past time point (e.g., two weeks before the present) corresponding to the unit period before the first past time point, and iii) a third past time point (e.g., three weeks before the present) corresponding to the unit period before the second past time point. The control unit 130 may select a content whose ranking has been continuously increased over the third past time point, the second past time point, the first past time point, and the specific time point as a ranking-increased content.

[0173] That is, the control unit 130 may exclude from the selection of the content whose rank has not increased compared to the immediately preceding time point among the third past time point, the second past time point, the first past time point, and the specific time point (the current time point) from among the contents. For example, as shown in FIG. 5, the rank of the content "Four Seasons" is the same as 7th place at the third past time point (three weeks before the current time point) and the second past time point (two weeks before the current time point) based on "popularity among women", and therefore the rank has not increased for three consecutive weeks, which are the multiple time points set in advance. In this case, the control unit 130 may not select the content "Four Seasons" as the content whose rank has increased.

[0174] Meanwhile, the control unit 130 may select a specific content whose rank has not increased compared to the immediately preceding time point among the third past time point, the second past time point, the first past time point, and the specific time point as the increased rank content, if the rank at the specific time point has increased by a preset range compared to the first past time point. That is, the control unit 130 may determine a content whose rank has not increased continuously over a plurality of time points as the increased rank content, if the rank has increased by a preset range compared to the immediately preceding time point (e.g., last week).

[0175] For example, in the case of the content "Rine" in Figure 5, based on popularity among men, the ranking at the third past point in time (three weeks ago) and the ranking at the second past point in time (two weeks ago) are the same (7th place), and the ranking has not increased over multiple points in time (three consecutive weeks). However, since the ranking at a specific point in time compared to the first past point in time (i.e., compared to last week) has increased by more than a predetermined range (6th place → 1st place), the content is selected as a content whose ranking has increased.

[0176] Meanwhile, the control unit 130 may not select a content whose rank has risen by a preset range or more compared to the immediately preceding time point, i.e., compared to last week, if there is a history of the rank dropping over a number of past time points. For example, in the case of the content "Rain" in FIG. 5, the rank rose by six levels compared to the immediately preceding time point (compared to last week) based on the overall popularity ranking, but the rank dropped between the second past time point and the first past time point, i.e., between two weeks ago and one week ago (e.g., dropped by four levels). In this case, the control unit 130 may not select the content whose rank has risen as a content whose rank has risen since there is a history of the rank dropping over a number of past time points.

[0177] In this manner, the control unit 130 may select, as a content whose current popularity ranking has increased by the preset range compared to last week, or whose ranking has increased continuously over a number of past time points, as a content whose ranking has increased. In this case, the control unit 130 may not select the content as a content whose ranking has increased if the current popularity ranking of the content has increased by the preset range compared to last week, but there is a history of the ranking having decreased at least one of the past time points. Meanwhile, the control unit 130 may calculate the ranking of the content as described above for the content serialized based on the day of the week. Here, the current time point may correspond to the day of the week on which the content is serialized. For example, for the content serialized on Wednesday, the ranking of the current Wednesday, which corresponds to the current time of the content, may be compared with the ranking of last Wednesday.

[0178] The following will describe in more detail the ranking calculation logic for selecting the above-mentioned ranking-increasing contents.

[0179] As described above, the control unit 130 can use various logics to select the content to be ranked.

[0180] The first logic may be logic for determining whether the current ranking of the content has increased by a preset range compared to last week. Specifically, the first logic may be logic for determining whether the popularity ranking of the content at a specific point in time has increased from the popularity ranking at a past point in time a preset unit period (e.g., one week) ago.

[0181] As shown in FIG. 6a, the control unit 130 may extract a calculated value (ex: a first calculated value) by subtracting a current time point (current rank) from a past time point (rank of last week) (S610). In addition, it may determine whether the calculated value is equal to or greater than a reference value (ex: a first reference value (ex: "3" (rank increase of three levels))) that corresponds to a value equal to or greater than a preset range (S620). If the calculated value is equal to or greater than the reference value as a result of the determination, the control unit 130 selects the content as a content that has been increased in rank (S630), and if the calculated value is less than the reference value, the control unit 130 does not select the content as a content that has been increased in rank (S640). For example, as shown in FIG. 6b (a), a specific content ("Mysterious World") has been increased in rank by three or more levels compared to last week, and is therefore selected as a content that has been increased in rank. Also, as shown in (b) and (c) of Figure 6b, since a particular content ("Mysterious World") did not increase in rank by a predetermined range compared to last week, the particular content is not selected as an increased-rank content.

[0182] The second logic may be logic for determining whether the ranking of the content has increased over a plurality of past time points up to the present. As described above, the plurality of past time points may include i) a first past time point (e.g., one week before the present) corresponding to the unit period (e.g., one week) before the specific time point corresponding to the present time point, ii) a second past time point (e.g., two weeks before the present) corresponding to the unit period before the first past time point, and iii) a third past time point (e.g., three weeks before the present) corresponding to the unit period before the second past time point.

[0183] The second logic may be logic for determining whether the ranking of the content has increased consecutively over a plurality of past time points (e.g., past time points corresponding to up to three weeks ago). For example, the second logic may be logic for determining whether the ranking of the content has increased for three consecutive weeks.

[0184] As shown in FIG. 7a, the control unit 130 can determine whether the content has been ranked higher for a number of past time points (e.g., three consecutive weeks) (S710). If the ranking of the content has been ranked higher for a number of past time points (e.g., three consecutive weeks), the control unit 130 can select the content as a ranked higher content (S720). If the ranking of the content has not been ranked higher for a number of past time points (e.g., three consecutive weeks), the control unit 130 can not select the content as a ranked higher content (S730). For example, as shown in FIG. 7b (a), a specific content ("Four Seasons") has been ranked higher for three consecutive weeks, so it is selected as a ranked higher content. Also, as shown in FIG. 7b (b) and (c), a specific content ("Four Seasons") has not been ranked higher for three consecutive weeks, so it is not selected as a ranked higher content.

[0185] Next, the third logic may be a logic for excluding from the content selected as the content to be increased in rank, the content that satisfies a preset unachieved condition. The third logic may be a judgment for the content selected as the content to be increased in rank by satisfying the first logic. That is, the control unit 130 may select the content to be increased in rank by the first logic, and then, by the third logic, exclude some of the content to be increased in rank from the content to be increased in rank. The third logic may be a logic for judging whether there is a history of a drop in rank at least in some of a plurality of past time points up to the present. As described above, the plurality of past time points may include i) a first past time point (e.g., one week before the present) corresponding to the unit period (e.g., one week) before the specific time point corresponding to the present time point, ii) a second past time point (e.g., two weeks before the present) corresponding to the unit period before the first past time point, and iii) a third past time point (e.g., three weeks before the present) corresponding to the unit period before the second past time point. If there is a point in time at which the ranking has dropped among multiple past points in time, for example, if there is a history of the ranking of a content selected as a content that has been ranked increased by the first logic being dropped within three weeks by the second logic, the control unit 130 can exclude the content from the content that has been ranked increased.

[0186] As described above, the control unit 130 can select the ranked content to be increased using the first logic or the second logic, and can exclude at least a portion of the ranked content selected by the first logic from the ranked content to be increased using the third logic.

[0187] As shown in FIG. 8a, the control unit 130 can determine whether or not a content satisfying the first logic has experienced a drop in rank within a number of past time points (e.g., within three weeks) (S810). If the determination result indicates that the rank of the content has experienced a drop in rank at some of the past time points, the control unit 130 can exclude the content from the content whose rank has increased (S820). If the determination result indicates that the rank of the content has not experienced a drop in rank at some of the past time points, the control unit 130 can maintain the content as the content whose rank has increased (S830). For example, as shown in FIG. 8b (a), a specific content ("Rain") is a content whose rank has increased by more than a preset range (a six-level increase in rank) compared to last week that satisfies the first logic, but since the rank has decreased between two weeks ago and one week ago, the specific content can be excluded from the content whose rank has increased.

[0188] Furthermore, for example, as shown in (b) of Figure 8b, a particular piece of content ("Rain") has risen in rank by more than a pre-defined range (a six-level increase in rank) compared to last week, which satisfies the first logic, and also satisfies the third logic (e.g., there is no history of a drop in rank within the past three weeks), so it can be maintained as a piece of content that has risen in rank.

[0189] Meanwhile, in the case of newly serialized content for which no past data (ie, last week's ranking) exists compared to the current time point, the control unit 130 can prevent output of ranking increase information.

[0190] As described above, in the content providing method according to the present invention, the ranking of content is calculated based on various criteria, and ranking increase information is provided for ranking-increased content that satisfies preset ranking conditions, thereby making it possible to effectively provide users with information regarding content that is rapidly increasing in popularity or continues to be popular.

[0191] In addition, the control unit 130 calculates popularity rankings for the content based on various criteria (e.g., popularity rankings among women, popularity rankings among men) and provides them to the user by arranging them on different pages, thereby allowing the user to grasp information about popular content based on various criteria at a glance.

[0192] On the other hand, when a specific item is selected by the user terminal on a page on which content items are arranged, for example, when an item corresponding to the rank-up content is selected by the user terminal, the control unit 130 can provide the user terminal with an episode page of the content corresponding to the selected item. In this case, an episode page including an episode list of the content corresponding to the selected item can be provided to the user terminal. For example, when an item of rank-up content is selected, an episode page including an episode list of episodes constituting the selected rank-up content can be provided to the user terminal.

[0193] As described above, the content providing method and system according to the present invention provides an intuitive user environment in which information about content serialized on a day of the week basis can be grasped at a glance by collecting and providing information about content serialized on a specific service page.

[0194] Furthermore, the content providing method and system according to the present invention can calculate the popularity ranking of the content serialized on a specific day of the week, and provide information on the popular content to the user using the calculated popularity ranking.

[0195] Furthermore, the present invention described above can be realized as computer readable codes or commands on a program recording medium, that is, the present invention can be provided in the form of a program.

[0196] The computer-readable medium includes any kind of recording device in which data read by a computer system is stored. Examples of the computer-readable medium include a hard disk drive (HDD), a solid state disk (SSD), a silicon disk drive (SDD), a ROM, a RAM, a CD-ROM, a magnetic tape, a floppy disk, an optical data storage device, etc.

[0197] The computer-readable medium also includes storage, including a server or cloud storage that a user terminal can access via communication. In this case, a computer can download the program according to the present invention from the server or cloud storage via wired or wireless communication.

[0198] Furthermore, in the present invention, the above-mentioned computer is a user terminal equipped with a processor, that is, a CPU (Central Processing Unit), and the type of the computer may be any.

[0199] However, the above detailed description should not be interpreted as limiting in any respect, but should be considered as illustrative. The scope of the present invention should be determined by reasonable interpretation of the claims, and all modifications within the equivalent scope of the present invention are included in the present invention.

Claims

1. A content providing method for providing a content providing service, comprising: A step of identifying a piece of content to be serialized on a specific day of the week from among a plurality of pieces of content serialized on a day of the week basis; calculating a popularity ranking of each of the identified contents serialized on the specific day of the week; selecting, from the identified contents, a content that satisfies a predetermined ranking condition by using the popularity ranking; providing a user terminal with items corresponding to the identified content serialized on the specific day of the week; A content providing method, comprising displaying rank increase information regarding rank increase for an item corresponding to the rank increased content among the items corresponding to the specified content.

2. The predetermined ranking condition is:

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the method relates to whether the identified content has increased in popularity at a plurality of different points in time.

3. The predetermined ranking condition is: The content providing method according to claim 2, characterized in that the popularity ranking of the identified content is related to whether or not it has increased by more than a predetermined range when compared between the specific point in time at which the popularity ranking of the identified content is calculated and a point in the past of at least one unit period from the specific point in time.

4. In the step of selecting the ranking increase content, When the popularity ranking of the identified content at the specific time point has increased by the predetermined range from the popularity ranking at the past time point, The method of claim 3, further comprising selecting the content whose rank has increased by a preset range as the increased rank content.

5. the popularity ranking of the specified content at the specific time point and the past time point corresponds to a popularity ranking on the specific day of the week on which the specified content is serialized; The specific time corresponds to a current time when the specified content is serialized; The unit period corresponds to one week, The method of claim 4 , wherein the past time includes a first past time that is one week before the specific time.

6. The ranking increasing content is The content providing method according to claim 5 , wherein the specified content is a content whose current popularity ranking on the specific day of the week has increased by the preset range compared to last week.

7. In the step of selecting the ranking increase content, Of the identified content, The content providing method according to claim 3, characterized in that the content whose current popularity ranking on the specific day of the week has increased by the predetermined range compared to last week, or the content whose ranking has increased continuously over a number of the past points in time, is selected as the content whose ranking has increased.

8. In the step of selecting the ranking increase content, The content providing method according to claim 2 , further comprising the step of selecting, from among the identified contents, a content whose ranking has been continuously increased over a number of previously set past points in time, as the increased-rank content.

9. The plurality of preset past time points are A first past time point corresponding to a unit period before the specific time point; a second past time point corresponding to the unit period before the first past time point; and a third past time point corresponding to the unit period before the second past time point; The ranking increasing content is 9. The content providing method according to claim 8, wherein the ranking of the content has continuously increased over the third past time point, the second past time point, the first past time point, and the specific time point.

10. In the step of selecting the ranking increase content, Among the identified content, the content whose ranking has not increased compared to the immediately preceding time point among the third past time point, the second past time point, the first past time point, and the specific time point is The method for providing contents according to claim 9, characterized in that the contents to be provided are excluded from the selection of the contents to be increased in rank.

11. In the step of selecting the ranking increase content, Among the identified content, even if the content has not increased in rank compared to the immediately preceding time point among the third past time point, the second past time point, the first past time point, and the specific time point, The method of claim 10, further comprising selecting, as the increased-rank content, a specific content whose rank at the specific time point has increased by a preset range compared to the first past time point.

12. In the content provision service, a plurality of service pages each matching with a different day of the week can be provided, In the step of providing the item, The content providing method according to claim 1 , further comprising providing items corresponding to the specified content to a specific service page that is matched to the specific day of the week among the plurality of service pages.

13. The content providing method of claim 12, wherein on the specific service page, items corresponding to the identified content are sequentially arranged according to a popularity ranking based on any one of a plurality of sorting criteria.

14. The items corresponding to the ranking-increasing content are: A thumbnail image corresponding to the increased rank content and a graphic object corresponding to the increased rank information are included, The method of claim 1 , wherein the graphic object overlays the thumbnail image.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the graphic object corresponding to the rank increase information includes guidance information indicating a reason why the rank increase content is selected as the rank increase content.

16. When an item corresponding to the increased ranking content is selected by the user terminal, The content providing method according to claim 14 , wherein an episode page including an episode list of episodes that constitute the ranking-increased content is provided to the user terminal.

17. In the content providing system, A storage unit for storing a plurality of contents; a control unit that identifies a piece of content to be serialized on a specific day of the week from among the plurality of pieces of content; The control unit is Calculating a popularity ranking for each of the identified contents serialized on the specific day of the week; selecting, from the identified contents, a content that satisfies a predetermined ranking condition using the popularity ranking; providing items corresponding to the specified contents serialized on the specific days of the week to a user terminal; A content providing system, characterized in that, among the items corresponding to the specified contents, items corresponding to the contents whose ranks have increased are displayed with information about an increase in rank.

18. A program executed by one or more processes in an electronic device and stored in a computer-readable recording medium, The program is: A step of identifying a piece of content to be serialized on a specific day of the week from among a plurality of pieces of content serialized on a day of the week basis; calculating a popularity ranking of each of the identified contents serialized on the specific day of the week; selecting, from the identified contents, a content that satisfies a predetermined ranking condition by using the popularity ranking; providing to a user terminal items corresponding to the identified content serialized on the specific day of the week; A program, characterized in that, among the items corresponding to the identified contents, rank increase information regarding the increase in rank is displayed for the items corresponding to the increased rank contents.

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