Revenue adjustment processes

Abstract

In a system that provides an open exchange environment to connect business entities through a network, methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products, for performing a revenue adjustment process to distribute one of a revenue surplus or a revenue deficit amongst business entities involved in one or more transactions from which the one of the revenue surplus or the revenue deficit originates over a predefined time interval, the performing including identifying a set of business entities involved in the one or more transactions to which the one of the revenue surplus or the revenue deficit is to be distributed; and determining a proportion of the one of the revenue surplus or the revenue deficit to which each business entity of the set is distributed.

1 . A data processing system comprising:
 a manager server computer configured to receive requests for web pages and requests for advertisements to place on web pages and to select two or more business entities among a plurality of business entities to participate in a business transaction to place an advertisement on a web page;   an accounting server to track compensation among business entities of the plurality of business entities selected to participate in business transactions and further configured to
 receive an adjustment request from a business entity of the plurality of business entities, the adjustment request seeking to distribute one of a revenue surplus or a revenue deficit generated by transactions among business entities of the plurality of business entities to place advertisements on web pages over a predefined time interval; 
 identify two or more business entities involved in a particular business transaction to place an advertisement on a web page, and 
 distribute the one of a revenue surplus or a revenue deficit among the identified two or more business entities involved with the particular business transaction from which the one of the revenue surplus or the revenue deficit originates over the predefined time interval. 
   
     
     
         2 . The data processing system of  claim 1  wherein the accounting server is configured to measure an aggregate amount of activity for placement of advertisements on web pages for determining a proportion of the one of a revenue surplus or a revenue deficit to be distributed among the identified two or more business entities involved with the particular business transaction over the predefined time interval. 
     
     
         3 . The data processing system of  claim 2  wherein the accounting server is configured to receive the adjustment request from a first business entity of the plurality of business entities, the received adjustment request from the first business entity including a first-business-entity-measured aggregate amount of activity for the particular business transaction over the predefined time interval, the accounting server further configured to distribute the one of a revenue surplus or a revenue deficit among the identified two or more business entities involved with the particular business transaction using the first-business-entity-measured aggregate amount of activity for the particular business transaction over the predefined time interval and the aggregate amount of activity for placement of advertisements on web pages to determining the proportion of the one of a revenue surplus or a revenue deficit to be distributed among the identified two or more business entities involved with the particular business transaction over the predefined time interval. 
     
     
         4 . The data processing system of  claim 3  wherein the accounting server is configured to determine the one of a revenue surplus or deficit as a difference between the aggregate amount of activity for placement of advertisements on web pages measured by the accounting server during the predefined time interval and the first-business-entity-measured aggregate amount of activity for the particular business transaction over the predefined time interval. 
     
     
         5 . The data processing system of  claim 4  wherein the accounting server is configured to:
 calculate a weighted adjustment value; 
 in response to the received revenue adjustment request, for each business entity of the plurality of business entities, generate an activity amount disparity by applying the weighted adjustment value to the aggregate amount of activity for placement of advertisements on web pages for the each business entity; and 
 determine the proportion of the one of the revenue surplus or the revenue deficit to which the each business entity is to be distributed based on the activity amount disparity generated for the predefined time interval. 
 
     
     
         6 . The data processing system of  claim 5  wherein the accounting server is configured to calculate the weighted adjustment according to the relation formula (x−y)/y, where x is a value that represents the first-business-entity-measured aggregate amount of activity for the particular business transaction over the predefined time interval, and y is a value that represents the aggregate amount of activity for placement of advertisements on web pages over the predefined time interval. 
     
     
         7 . The data processing system of  claim 3  wherein the accounting server is configured to receive the adjustment request from an advertiser of the plurality of business entities, the advertiser associated with an online advertising creative, the adjustment request providing an advertiser-measured amount of activity associated with the online advertising creative over the predefined time interval. 
     
     
         8 . The data processing system of  claim 7  wherein the accounting system is configured to receive a number of impressions, clicks, conversions or revenue as the advertiser-measured amount of activity associated with the online advertising creative over the predefined time interval. 
     
     
         9 . A computer implemented method comprising:
 at a transaction management system including a plurality of computers,
 receiving requests to serve advertisements of advertisers for placement on web pages of publishers, the web pages served to users in response to web page requests, the placement of the advertisements on the web pages being subject of business transactions between the advertisers, the publishers and one or more advertising networks; 
 tracking revenue produced by the placement of the advertisements on the web pages for the business transactions; 
 receiving a revenue adjustment request to distribute one of a revenue surplus or a revenue deficit for a predefined time interval, the revenue adjustment request specifying one or more business transactions and business entities involved in the specified one or more business transactions; 
 in response to the received revenue adjustment request, performing a revenue adjustment process to proportionately assign the one of the revenue surplus or the revenue deficit among business entities involved in the one or more business transactions, including identifying one or more advertisers, one or more publishers and one or more advertising networks involved in the specified business transactions,
 determining proportions of the one of the revenue surplus or the revenue deficit to distribute to each of the identified one or more advertisers, one or more publishers and one or more advertising networks involved in the specified business transactions, and 
 updating accounts of the one or more advertisers, one or more publishers and one or more advertising networks involved in the specified business transactions according to the determined proportions. 
 
   
     
     
         10 . The computer implemented method of  claim 9  wherein determining proportions of the one of the revenue surplus or the revenue deficit to distribute comprises determining the proportions based on a ratio based on an amount of activity for the specified business transactions measured by a business entity involved in the one or more business transactions over a predetermined time interval to an amount of activity for the specified business transactions measured by the transaction management system over the predetermined time interval. 
     
     
         11 . The computer implemented method of  claim 10  further comprising measuring the amount of activity for the specified business transactions over the predetermined time interval. 
     
     
         12 . The computer implemented method of  claim 10  wherein receiving a revenue adjustment request comprises receiving the amount of activity for the specified business transactions measured by a business entity involved in the one or more business transactions. 
     
     
         13 . The computer implemented method of  claim 12  wherein determining the proportions based on the ratio comprises, for each business entity involved in the one or more business transactions, determining an activity amount disparity by applying the ratio to the amount of activity for the specified business transactions measured by the transaction management system over the predetermined time interval and determining the proportions of the one of the revenue surplus or the revenue deficit to distribute to each of the identified one or more advertisers, one or more publishers and one or more advertising networks involved in the specified business transactions based on the activity amount disparity for each business entity involved in the one or more business transactions. 
     
     
         14 . The computer implemented method of  claim 9  further comprising:
 receiving one or more line items of an agreement between business entities involved in the specified one or more business transactions, each line item of the one or more line items being related to an online advertisement creative of an advertiser being offered for display on a web page of a publisher; and 
 tracking revenue produced by the placement of the advertisements on the web pages based on the one or more line items. 
 
     
     
         15 . The computer implemented method of  claim 14  wherein receiving the one or more line items comprises receiving line items which each include a unit price for the online advertisement creative, the unit price being adjusted based on one of impressions, clicks, conversions, and revenue. 
     
     
         16 . The computer implemented method of  claim 15  wherein
 at least one of the one or more publishers has a business relationship with one or more advertisement networks, the relationship being defined in part by a line item related to an online advertisement space of a web page; 
 
       and wherein identifying one or more advertisers, one or more publishers and one or more advertising networks involved in the specified business transactions comprises
 excluding, from a set of business entities to which the one of the revenue surplus or the revenue deficit is to be distributed, any publisher that has an exclusive relationship with the one or more advertisement networks. 
 
     
     
         17 . A transaction management system comprising:
 a first computer configured to run a first application program to facilitate commercial transactions between a plurality of business entities, the commercial transactions including a respective online advertising creative of a respective advertiser to be displayed on a web page associated with a publisher;   a second computer configured to run a second application to track and manage accounting activity associated with the commercial transactions, each commercial transaction involving a first business entity that has been selected by the transaction management system from among a plurality of business entities to place an online advertising creative of the first business entity on a web page of a second business entity in return for compensation exchanged between the first business entity and the second business entity, the compensation being tracked and managed by the second application;   a third computer configured to run a third application to perform a revenue adjustment process, the third computer configured to receive a revenue adjustment request from a business entity involved in one or more particular commercial transactions between an advertiser and a publisher to place an online advertising creative on a web page of the publisher for compensation exchanged between the advertiser and the publisher, the revenue adjustment process operative to distribute one of a revenue surplus or a revenue deficit among the business entities involved in the one or more particular commercial transactions, the third application configured to respond to the revenue adjustment request by identifying a set of business entities involved in the one or more particular commercial transactions and determining respective proportions of the one of the revenue surplus or the revenue deficit to be distributed to accounts of the respective business entities involved in the one or more particular commercial transactions.   
     
     
         18 . The transaction management system of  claim 17  wherein the second computer is configured to run a second application to track and manage accounting activity associated with commercial transactions involving a respective advertiser, a respective publisher and a respective advertisement network which provides access to online advertising creatives of a plurality of advertisers for the respective publisher and access to a plurality of publishers for the respective advertiser, and wherein the third application is configured to perform revenue adjustment process operative to distribute the one of a revenue surplus or a revenue deficit among the business entities including the respective advertising network involved in the one or more particular commercial transactions. 
     
     
         19 . The transaction management system of  claim 18  wherein the third application is configured to measure an amount of activity related to the online advertising creative during a predefined time interval, and further configured to receive with the revenue adjustment request an advertiser-measured amount of activity, associated with the online advertisement creative over the predefined time interval, the third application further configured to
 calculate a weighted adjustment value; 
 for each respective business entity, generate an interval-based activity amount disparity by applying the weighted adjustment to the system-measured amount of activity associated with the one or more particular commercial transactions during the predefined time interval; and 
 determine the respective proportions of the one of the revenue surplus or the revenue deficit to be distributed to accounts of each respective business entity based on the interval-based activity amount disparity generated for the predefined time interval. 
 
     
     
         20 . The transaction management system of  claim 19  wherein the third application is configured to calculate the weighted adjustment value as (x−y)/y, where x corresponds to the advertiser-measured amount of activity over the predefined time interval, and y corresponds to the system-measured aggregate amount of activity associated with the one or more particular commercial transactions during the predefined time interval.