Determining gift suggestions for users of a social networking system using an auction model

Abstract

A social networking system provides suggestions of gifts to users for presentation to a target user for a life event of the target user. Merchants provide bids for their products. The social networking system selects products as gift suggestions based on the merchants' bids, recipient's interests, and the candidate user to whom the gift is suggested. The selected gift and any messages relating to the life event are held until a specified time and then delivered to the target user. At the time of delivery, the target user may be provided with alternative products that the target user can select instead of the gift. The social networking system can earn revenue based on promotion of products as gift suggestions, promotion of products as gift alternatives, and for any financial transaction related to the gift.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A computer implemented method comprising:
 receiving, by a social networking system, a plurality of bids, each bid comprising information identifying a gift suggestion and a bid value representing revenue to be provided to the social networking system in connection with the gift suggestion;   identifying a life event of a target user of the social networking system;   selecting one or more candidate users connected to the target user via the social networking system; and   for each of one or more of the candidate users:
 selecting a gift suggestion from the plurality of gift suggestions based at least in part on the bid value associated with the gift suggestion, and 
 sending the selected gift suggestion for display to the candidate user. 
   
     
     
         2 . The computer implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein selecting a gift suggestion comprises:
 identifying a gift suggestion based on a type of the life event.   
     
     
         3 . The computer implemented method of  claim 2 , wherein identifying a gift suggestion for presenting to the target user as gift for the life event is based on a predetermined mapping from life events to gift suggestions suitable for presenting as gifts for each life event. 
     
     
         4 . The computer implemented method of  claim 3 , wherein the predetermined mapping from life events to gift suggestions suitable for presenting as gifts for each life event is based on historical data describing gifts given to users in past for life events. 
     
     
         5 . The computer implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein selecting a gift suggestion comprises:
 identifying a gift suggestion based on information describing previous interactions between the target user and the candidate user associated with a gift suggestion.   
     
     
         6 . The computer implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein selecting a gift suggestion comprises:
 identifying gift suggestions based on information describing a location associated with a merchant, the merchant associated with the bids identifying the gift suggestions, wherein the social networking system has received information indicating the candidate user and the target user have visited the location.   
     
     
         7 . The computer implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein a bid value of a bid corresponds to revenue provided to the social networking system by a merchant providing the bid responsive to the social networking system selecting the gift suggestion associated with the bid. 
     
     
         8 . The computer implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein a bid value of a bid corresponds to revenue provided to the social networking system by a merchant providing the bid responsive to the social networking system sending the gift suggestion associated with the bid for display to the target user as an alternative to the selected gift suggestion. 
     
     
         9 . The computer implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein a bid value of a bid corresponds to revenue provided to the social networking system by a merchant providing the bid responsive to a purchase of a product associated with the bid. 
     
     
         10 . The computer implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein the plurality of bids comprises a first bid for a gift suggestion from a merchant corresponding to revenue provided to the social networking system by the merchant responsive to the social networking system selecting the gift suggestion and a higher bid for sending the gift suggestion for display to the target user as an alternative to the selected gift suggestion. 
     
     
         11 . The computer implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein the plurality of bids comprises a first bid for a gift suggestion from a merchant corresponding to revenue provided to the social networking system by the merchant responsive to the social networking system selecting the gift suggestion to the candidate user and a lower bid for subsequently sending the gift suggestion for display to another user after the product was sent for display to the candidate user. 
     
     
         12 . The computer implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein selecting the one or more candidate users comprises determining a likelihood of each of the one or more candidate users presenting a gift to the target user for the life event, the likelihood determined based on an affinity between the candidate user and the target user. 
     
     
         13 . The computer implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein selecting the one or more candidate users comprises determining a likelihood of each candidate user presenting a gift to the target user for the life event, the likelihood determined based on a history of previous gifts presented by the candidate user to the target user. 
     
     
         14 . The computer implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein selecting a gift suggestion is further based on the gift suggestion having been presented as a gift by the candidate user in the past. 
     
     
         15 . The computer implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein selecting the gift suggestion comprises selecting an expensive gift suggestion for displaying to the candidate user compared to a less expensive gift suggestion selected for displaying to another candidate user responsive to the user profile of the candidate user indicating a higher earning capacity compared to the other candidate user. 
     
     
         16 . The computer implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein selecting the gift suggestion comprises:
 responsive to a price of a gift suggestion exceeding a threshold value, proposing the gift suggestion as a group gift to a plurality of candidate users.   
     
     
         17 . A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing executable computer program instructions, the computer program instructions comprising instructions for:
 receiving, by a social networking system, a plurality of bids, each bid comprising information identifying a gift suggestion and a bid value representing revenue to be provided to the social networking system in connection with the gift suggestion;   identifying a life event of a target user of the social networking system;   selecting one or more candidate users connected to the target user via the social networking system; and   for each of one or more of the candidate users:
 selecting a gift suggestion from the plurality of gift suggestions based at least in part on the bid value associated with the gift suggestion, and 
   sending the selected gift suggestion for display to the candidate user.   
     
     
         18 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of  claim 17 , wherein the predetermined mapping from life events to gift suggestions suitable for presenting as gifts for each life event is based on historical data describing gifts given to users in past for life events. 
     
     
         19 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of  claim 17 , wherein the plurality of bids comprises a first bid for a gift suggestion from a merchant corresponding to revenue provided to the social networking system by the merchant responsive to the social networking system selecting the gift suggestion and a higher bid for sending the gift suggestion for display to the target user as an alternative to the selected gift suggestion. 
     
     
         20 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of  claim 17 , wherein selecting the gift suggestion comprises:
 responsive to a price of a gift suggestion exceeding a threshold value, proposing the gift suggestion as a group gift to a plurality of candidate users.