Systems and methods for transacting business over a global communications network such as the internet

Abstract

A business process is described for conducting business transactions over the Internet, allowing buyers an opportunity to reduce the price of a product/service based on the buyer's performance during a Price-Determining-Activity (PDA). Sellers offer the product/service within a specified price range, and buyers agree to a binding agreement, in exchange for the opportunity to close the transaction at the lowest price by achieving a high score or performance during the PDA. The price may change during the PDA, and the available price at any given time may be displayed or otherwise made available to the buyer. The price change may be continuous, at intervals, in response to certain events. The PDA may be a video game, electronic board game, sports bet, card game, or any other activity, or against the seller, a software opponent, or a computer opponent. The PDA may involve another buyer competing for the same product/service.

1 . A system comprising multiple programmable databases accessible by at least one computer server, comprising computer executable program code and being programmed to:
 communicating via a global communication network to a buyer;   receiving data representing a binding commitment from the buyer via the global communication network to purchase a product for a price that will be partially based upon participation in a competitive activity that is collateral to the price and associated with the product being purchased during an ecommerce transaction; the competitive activity is required as part of the ecommerce transaction;   receiving data over the global communication network, said data representing the participation in the competitive activity; and   determining the price of the product based at least partially upon the data received and at least partially on a bid in an auction.   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising computer executable program code programmed to perform the step of determining the price based at least partially upon a competition between at least two participants participating in the competitive activity. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the competitive activity requires at least one additional participant being a second buyer, and further comprising receiving data representing a second binding commitment from the second buyer to purchase the product for a second price; the second price will be at least partially based on the competitive activity and a bid from the second buyer. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the bid is received from the buyer, and further comprising receiving a second bid from a second buyer, and the price is based at least partially on the bids received. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising the step of paying a fee for selling the product based on revenue of the ecommerce transaction. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the bid is offered by the buyer; and the price is determined as a winning bid of the buyer to purchase the product. 
     
     
         7 . The system  claim 1 , further comprising the step of determining at least one or more prices in addition to the price for one or more buyers in addition to the buyer based on a desired average price.