JP2012058987A - Distribution server and distribution method notifying a user of a recommendable application - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To at least mitigate an unfavorable possibility that a user may keep using an application which is not necessary the best for him/her.SOLUTION: A distribution server presenting recommendable applications to a user includes a reception part for receiving a notification signal including information on an application owned by the user from the user, a storage part for storing application function information which associates the same or similar applications with each other, a selection part for identifying applications having the same or similar function as/to that of the application owned by the user and selecting an application recommendable for the user from the identified applications, and a transmission part for transmitting a recommendation signal indicating the application selected by the selection part to the user.

Description

  The present invention relates to a distribution server and a distribution method for recommending an application to a user.

  Recent communication terminals not only perform communication, but also can download and execute various applications from a server. Specifically, the communication terminal is a mobile phone, an information terminal, a smartphone, a notebook personal computer, a laptop computer, a desktop computer, or the like, but is not limited thereto. Since there are an extremely large number of applications that can be downloaded to the communication terminal, the application provider (provider) needs to recommend the application to be provided to the user. About recommending an application to the user of a communication terminal is described in Patent Document 1, for example. In this application, application and software are used as synonyms.

JP 2010-157207 A

  In short, the conventional method for determining an application recommended to a user is to recommend an application owned by a user B similar to the user A to a user A among applications not owned by a user A. Since this method recommends to the user an application having a function that the user has not used yet, the user can arrange a wide variety of applications. In the case of this method, when a user downloads a recommended application, an application having the same function as the downloaded application is excluded from the list of applications recommended by the distribution server next time.

  On the other hand, in the application market, in addition to many new applications being registered every day, existing applications are also frequently updated. Therefore, the application downloaded by the user will sooner or later become less optimal for the user.

  Therefore, if the application is continuously recommended by the conventional method, there is a problem that the user continues to use an application that is not necessarily the best for the user.

  An object of the present invention is to at least reduce the risk of a user continuing to use an application that is not necessarily the best for the user.

The distribution server according to one embodiment is:
A distribution server that recommends applications to users,
A receiving unit that receives a notification signal including information on an application owned by the user from the user;
A storage unit that stores application function information that associates applications having the same or similar functions;
An application having the same or similar function as the application owned by the user is identified using the application function information, and a selection unit that selects an application recommended to the user from among the identified applications;
And a transmission unit that transmits a recommendation signal indicating the application selected by the selection unit to the user.

  According to one embodiment, it is possible to at least reduce the risk that the user will continue to use an application that is not necessarily the best for the user.

The figure which shows the communication system in an Example. The functional block diagram of a communication terminal. The functional block diagram of a delivery server. The figure which shows a mode that the information of a function is managed for every application. The figure which shows a mode that the correspondence between applications is managed. The figure which shows the correspondence between applications. The figure which shows a mode that the correspondence between applications is managed. The figure which shows operation | movement outline | summary. The sequence diagram which shows an operation example. The sequence diagram which shows another operation example.

  Examples will be described from the following viewpoints.

1. System 2. 2. Communication terminal Distribution server 4. Example of operation 5. Modified example

<1. System>
FIG. 1 shows a communication system used in the embodiment. The communication system includes a communication terminal 10, a mobile communication network 20, a distribution server 30, and an application management server 40. The communication terminal 10 communicates with the distribution server 30 via the mobile communication network 20. The distribution server 30 communicates with the application management server 40 as necessary. The application management server 40 has various applications that can be provided by the provider, and provides applications in response to requests from the distribution server 30. In the illustrated example, the application management server 40 is shown as a network element different from the distribution server 30, but this is not essential, and the application management server 40 exists in the distribution server 30. May be.

<2. Communication terminal>
FIG. 2 shows a functional block diagram of the communication terminal 10. FIG. 2 shows various functional elements included in the communication terminal 10 that are particularly relevant to the present embodiment. The communication terminal may be any appropriate communication terminal that can download and execute an application from the distribution server 30. The communication terminal may be a mobile terminal as in this embodiment, but may be a fixed terminal. Specifically, the communication terminal is a mobile phone, an information terminal, a smartphone, a notebook personal computer, a laptop computer, a desktop computer, or the like, but is not limited thereto. The illustrated communication terminal 10 includes at least a control unit 202, an application information acquisition unit 204, an application information storage unit 206, a notification signal generation unit 208, a transmission / reception unit 210, and a display unit 212.

  The control unit 202 controls the operation of various functional elements in the communication terminal 10 so that the operation according to the present embodiment can be executed.

  The application information acquisition unit 204 acquires application information (application information). In general, application information includes application identification information (name, ID, etc.) stored in the communication terminal 10, application category (genre), date and time of application download, date and time of application installation, and application startup. Date and time when the application was started, the number of times the application was started, and the date and time when the application was deleted. The enumerated information is merely an example, and other information may be included in the application information. Note that all or part of the application information (particularly, the date and time when the application is started and the number of times it is started) may be referred to as usage history information.

  The application information storage unit 206 stores application information (application information) and provides the application information to the notification signal generation unit 208 as necessary.

  The notification signal generation unit 208 generates a notification signal including application information. The application information includes one or more of the various information items described above, and preferably includes identification information of the stored application and information indicating the activation history of the application.

  The transmission / reception unit 210 has a function as a reception unit and a function as a transmission unit of the communication terminal 10. The transmission / reception unit 210 receives applications and other signals from the distribution server 30 via the mobile communication network 20. Other signals include, for example, a recommendation signal that prompts the user to download some application. In addition, the transmission / reception unit 210 transmits the notification signal created by the notification signal generation unit 208 to the distribution server 30. The timing for sending the notification signal may be any time, but is preferably the time when the user makes an intention to search for an application. Examples of such intention display include, but are not limited to, a user pressing a push button and a user selecting a button displayed on the screen. Alternatively, the notification signal may be reported to the distribution server 30 at any appropriate predetermined frequency such as time, day, week, month, and the like. In the illustrated example, the signal is transmitted and received wirelessly via an antenna, but the signal may be transmitted and received via a wired network.

  The display unit 212 exhibits a visual user interface function. Specifically, the display unit 212 is a liquid crystal display (LCD), a plasma display, an organic EL panel, or the like, but is not limited thereto. The display unit 212 in the present embodiment realizes a touch screen having a touch-sensitive transparent panel, and can control the display of the screen by the movement of the user's finger or stylus. The display unit 212 can display characters, graphics, symbols, still images, moving images, and the like. For example, an icon representing an application is displayed on the screen. The communication terminal 10 may be provided with not only a visual user interface such as the display unit 212 but also other user interfaces (for example, an auditory user interface). For example, the communication terminal may include a keypad, a control panel, a keyboard, a touch pad, a mouse, a trackball, a microphone, a speaker, and the like.

<3. Distribution server>
FIG. 3 shows a functional block diagram of the distribution server 30. FIG. 3 shows various functional elements provided in the distribution server 30 that are particularly relevant to the present embodiment. The distribution server 30 determines an application to be recommended to the user of the communication terminal 10 based on the information from the application management server 40, recommends the application by transmitting a recommendation signal via the mobile communication network 20, and receives the application from the user. Provide applications according to the instructions. The illustrated distribution server 30 includes at least a transmission / reception unit 302, an application function estimation unit 304, an application function information storage unit 306, a used application determination unit 308, and a recommended application selection unit 310. In addition, it is not essential for the present embodiment that the illustrated functional elements exist inside the distribution server 30. For example, the application function information storage unit 306 may be provided in a device different from the distribution server 30.

  The transmission / reception unit 302 has a function as a reception unit and a function as a transmission unit of the distribution server 30. The transmission / reception unit 302 receives a signal from the communication terminal 10 via the mobile communication network 20. The received signal includes a notification signal including the application information and a signal including other information. Examples of the other information include information on an application that the user has decided to download. The notification signal is transmitted from each of the plurality of communication terminals connected to the distribution server 30 as necessary, and is received by the transmission / reception unit 302 of the distribution server 30. For the application decided to be recommended to the user, the transmission / reception unit 302 creates a recommendation signal that recommends downloading of the application, and transmits the recommendation signal to the user.

  The application function estimation unit 304 estimates or determines application function information using information received from the application management server 40. The application function information may be expressed by a specific function name of the application. Alternatively, the application function information may be expressed by a correspondence relationship between applications indicating applications having the same function or similar functions as each application for each of a plurality of applications. In any case, the application function information is information that associates a plurality of applications having the same function with each other. In this application, unless there is a possibility of confusion, the “same function” includes not only strictly the same function but also a function recognized as being the same and a similar function. The application management server 40 provides the distribution server 30 with information regarding applications that can be provided to the user. As an example, a server of a person who developed an application (may be referred to as a developer, a developer, a software producer, or the like) may function as the application management server 40. Information regarding the application in this case includes identification information (name, ID, etc.) of a newly created or updated application, an introduction of the application, and information indicating the function of the application (for example, function name, etc.). May be included. Or although the information regarding an application contains the identification information of an application, and the introductory sentence of an application, it does not need to contain information, such as a specific function name. An application introduction may be referred to as an application description. The application introduction text is information displayed on the communication terminal when recommending to the user, and specifically, information describing the application purpose, function, usage, and the like.

  The application function information may be estimated by any appropriate method. For example, the following methods (1) to (3) are conceivable.

(1) Method 1
When an application developer registers a newly created or updated application in the distribution server 30, it can be registered together with the function name of the application. In this case, it is possible to easily know what application has a specific function by specifying a specific function name.

(2) Method 2
A function name of the application may be specified by creating a dictionary related to the function name of the application in advance and comparing a word / phrase appearing in the application introduction sentence with a word / phrase registered in the dictionary. Also in this case, by specifying a specific function name, it is possible to easily know what an application has a specific function.

  FIG. 4 shows an example of information stored in the application function information storage unit 306. In the illustrated example, function names are listed for each application. Therefore, such information can be used not only by this method but also by the method in (1) above. In the illustrated example, the specific function name represents a concept (a more specific concept) narrower than the category of application such as “business”, “travel”, and the like. However, various concepts may be used as function names.

  FIG. 5 shows the correspondence between applications derived from the function names of the applications as shown in FIG. Application A has a function name of “train guidance”, and applications D and H having the same function are associated with application A. The application B has a function name “breaking news”, and applications C, G, and M having the same function are associated with the application B. The application C has two function names “breaking news” and “weather forecast”, and applications B and D having the same function are associated with the application C.

(3) Method 3
By determining the similarity or distance between introductions of multiple applications and creating a group of applications with high similarity or close distance (by associating with each other), a group of applications having the same function is identified. May be. In this case, a correspondence relationship between arbitrary applications can be established regardless of a specific function name.

  FIG. 6 schematically shows the correspondence between a plurality of applications. As an example of this correspondence, morphological analysis is performed on the introductory text of an application, predetermined parts of speech (nouns, adjectives, etc.) are extracted, coordinates in the feature space are obtained for each application, and the distance between the coordinates of the application is calculated. You may be asked for it. The shorter the distance, the more similar their applications. In the case of the illustrated example, it shows how the 25 applications up to AY are similar to each other. The solid line connecting the two applications indicates that they are somewhat similar. Therefore, in the figure, which application is connected to which application by a solid line is important in the correspondence between applications. The applications A-Y are arranged in a grid pattern, but this is made from the viewpoint of simplification of illustration, and the grid layout itself is not essential. For this reason, the length of the solid line connecting the applications is not essential. For example, the applications B and C are connected by one solid line (one line segment), and the applications B and G are also connected by one solid line, and the line segment BC is shorter than the line segment BG. The similarity between the applications B and C and the similarity between B and G are approximately the same. For convenience, one line segment corresponds to a distance of 1. For example, the distance between applications A and D is 1, the distance between applications A and B is 3, and application A is more similar to D than B.

  FIG. 7 represents the correspondence shown in FIG. 6 in a table format as shown in FIG. Applications whose distance from the application A is 1 are D and H. Applications whose distance from the application A is 2 are C, O, I, V, W, and X. Similarly, applications whose distance from the application B is 1 are C, G, and M. Applications whose distance from the application B is 2 are D, R, S, T, and N. Applications whose distance from the application C is 1 are B and D. Applications whose distance from the application C is 2 are G, M, A, O, and I. Similarly, for all applications, applications that are at the same distance can be specified. Since the similarity is higher as the distance is shorter, the application whose distance is 1 becomes the most promising candidate of the application having the same function. The range of applications having the same function can be arbitrarily changed by appropriately setting the distance. For example, an application group having the same function may be specified by setting the distance to 2 instead of 1.

  The application function information storage unit 306 in FIG. 3 stores the application function information (FIG. 4-7) estimated by the application function estimation unit 304, and stores the information in the use application determination unit 308 and the recommended application selection unit 310 as necessary. I will provide a.

  The use application determination unit 308 identifies or extracts an application owned by the user who transmitted the notification signal (more specifically, installed after downloading). When the application function information storage unit 306 manages specific function name information for each application (in the case of (1) and (2) above), the used application determination unit 308 displays the application in the notification signal. Is notified to the application function information storage unit 306. The application function information storage unit 306 identifies the function name corresponding to the notified application identification information by referring to the application function information (FIG. 4), and notifies the used application determination unit 308. The use application determination unit 308 notifies the recommended application selection unit 310 of the notified function name. The recommended application selection unit 310 inquires of the application function information storage unit 306 about the application having the notified function name, and receives identification information (application name, ID, etc.) of the application having the function.

  When the application function information storage unit 306 does not manage a specific function name (in the case of (3) above), the use application determination unit 308 uses the application identification information in the notification signal as the recommended application selection unit. 310 is notified. The recommended application selecting unit 310 notifies the application function information storage unit 306 of the notified identification information. The application function information storage unit 306 identifies the application corresponding to the notified identification information of the application by referring to the above-described application function information (FIGS. 5-7), and the identification information (application name, ID, etc.) ) To the recommended application selection unit 310. Details of this operation will be described with reference to FIG.

  The recommended application selection unit 310 selects an application that is actually recommended to the user from the group of applications notified from the application function information storage unit 306. As an example, all of the group of applications notified from the application function information storage unit 306 may be actually recommended. However, when there is a relatively large group of applications notified from the application function information storage unit 306, it is preferable to recommend only applications that are narrowed down based on some criteria to the user. Specifically, the following criteria can be considered, but not limited to these.

  (1) An application having a relatively large number of distributions in the past from the distribution server 30 may be selected as an application recommended to the user. This is because an application with a large number of distributions or downloads is used by many users and is likely to be a useful application.

  (2) An application that has been distributed from the distribution server 30 in the past and that has been installed by the user relatively frequently may be selected as an application recommended to the user. There are many applications that are downloaded but not actually installed. An application with a large number of installations is actually used by many users and is likely to be a useful application.

  (3) An application recommended to a user may be selected according to a ranking by a plurality of users. Applications that are ranked high are highly popular and likely to be useful applications.

(4) An application with a relatively large number of transfers may be selected as an application recommended to the user. That is, regarding which application the other users Y ₁ , Y ₂ ,..., Who owned the same application installed by the user X, have switched to among the applications identified as applications having the same function. analyse. Then, an application with a relatively large number of transfers may be recommended to the user X. When the user having the application A switches to the application D having the same function, the user uninstalls or deletes the application A and installs the application D. That is, the user replaces application A with D.

Incidentally, the number of users who transfer from application A to D (the number of times) than the N _AD, and who from the application D in the number of users who change to A (times) N _DA was often.

N _AD <N _DA
In this case, the application A is likely to be more useful than the D, and it is not preferable to recommend the application D to the user who has the application A. Therefore, it is preferable to recommend an application with a smaller number of reverse transfers to the user in consideration of not only the number of transfers N _AD from applications A to D but also the reverse number of transfers N _DA .

  It is preferable to recommend an application that shortens the distance between the applications after the transfer instead of or in addition to the reverse transfer. For example, assume that similar relationships between applications are as shown in FIGS. Further assume that the user already owns applications A and B. From the viewpoint of similarity or distance, it is conceivable to recommend applications D, H, C, G, and M having a distance of 1. In this case, if the user changes from application A to H, the user owns applications H and B after the change. In this case, the distance between owned applications is 3 (distance between ABs) before transfer, and 4 (distance between HBs) after transfer, increasing. On the other hand, if the user changes from application A to D, the user owns applications D and B after the change. In this case, the distance between the owned applications is 3 (distance between AB) before transfer, and 2 (distance between DBs) after transfer, which is reduced.

  When two applications owned by a user are close to each other, they have similar functions, and in some cases, the two applications may be integrated into one application. If integration is possible, in addition to saving resources for storing the application, the user only needs to use one application instead of two, which improves convenience. From such a viewpoint, when recommending an application to a user, it is preferable to recommend an application that shortens the distance between applications after transfer.

<4. Example of operation>
An example of operation in the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 8 schematically shows an operation outline, and FIG. 9 shows a detailed operation example. In FIG. 8, the application function information storage unit 304 is depicted so as to exist outside the distribution server 30, but this is not essential in the present embodiment, and the application function information storage unit 306 includes the distribution server 30. It may be inside or outside.

  In step S1 of FIG. 9 (step S81 of FIG. 8), the application function estimation unit 304 of the distribution server 30 acquires information about a new application from the application management server 40. The application management server 40 is managed by, for example, an application developer, and provides the distribution server 30 with the application and information related to the application as needed. The application function estimation unit 304 identifies the function name of the application using the received information. If function name information is included in the received information, application function information is created by extracting the function name. If function name information is not included in the received information, the application function information is created by analyzing the introductory text (description of the application) in the received information and estimating the function name. .

  In step S <b> 2 (step S <b> 82 in FIG. 8), the application function estimation unit 304 notifies the application function information storage unit 306 of information on the specified function name (application function information). The application function information storage unit 306 stores the notified application function information. The sequence shown in FIG. 9 is based on the premise that the application function information storage unit 306 manages a specific function name as shown in FIG. 4 for each application. A case where the application function information storage unit 306 does not manage a specific function name will be described with reference to FIG.

  In step S <b> 3 (step S <b> 83 in FIG. 8), the user transmits a notification signal to the distribution server 30 in order to know an application recommended by the distribution server 30. The notification signal includes at least identification information indicating an application already owned by the user and activation history information indicating a history of activation of the application. In the case of the example shown in FIG. 8, the user has applications A, B, and F, starts (that is, uses) application A on date XX / XX, and uses application B on date YY / YY. However, there is no track record of using application F. A notification signal including such information is notified to the distribution server 30.

  In step S4 (step S84 in FIG. 8), the use application determination unit 308 first selects applications that have been activated from the applications held by the user, and excludes applications that have not been activated. In the case of the current example, application A is excluded from applications A, B, and F, and applications A and B are selected. Next, the used application determination unit 308 inquires of the application function information storage unit 306 about the application function together with the application identification information, and acquires the function name of the application (step S5 (step S84 in FIG. 8)). For example, the functions of the applications A and B are inquired, and the function name “train guidance” of the application A and the function names “breaking news” and “weather forecast” of the application B are notified to the use application determining unit 308.

  In step S6 (step S84 in FIG. 8), the used application determining unit 308 notifies the recommended application selecting unit 310 of the function name of the notified application.

  In step S7, the recommended application selecting unit 310 inquires of the application function information storage unit 306 about the application having the notified function name, and acquires the identification information of the application having the function name. For example, in the case of the application A, the recommended application selecting unit 310 inquires of the application function information storage unit 306 about the function name “train guidance”, and the identification information of one or more applications having the function of “train guidance” (for example, Application D, H) is acquired. In the case of the application B, the recommended application selection unit 310 inquires of the application function information storage unit 306 about the function name “breaking news”, for example, identification information of one or more applications having the function of “breaking news” (for example, application C, G, M). The correspondence relationship or similarity relationship of applications is based on the example of FIGS. 4-7.

  The recommended application selection unit 310 selects an application that is actually recommended to the user from one or more applications notified from the application function information storage unit 306 as an application having a specific function. As described above, all of the group of applications notified from the application function information storage unit 306 may actually be recommended. However, when there is a relatively large group of applications notified from the application function information storage unit 306, it is preferable to recommend only applications that are narrowed down based on some criteria to the user.

  In step S <b> 8, a recommendation signal including information regarding the selected application is transmitted from the distribution server 30 to the communication terminal 10. The user of the communication terminal 10 can determine an application to be downloaded by referring to information (for example, an introduction sentence) regarding the selected application.

<5. Modification>
The sequence diagram shown in FIG. 9 is based on the premise that the application function information storage unit 306 manages a specific function name as shown in FIG. 4 for each application. However, this is not essential for the present embodiment, and the application function information storage unit 306 may not manage specific function names. In that case, the application function information storage unit 306 manages the correspondence (similarity) between applications as shown in FIGS.

  FIG. 10 shows the operation when the application function information storage unit 306 manages the correspondence between applications without managing specific function names. 9 is generally the same as the operation shown in FIG. 9, but steps S4 and S5 for specifying a specific function name in FIG. 9 do not exist in FIG. 10, and instead of steps S6 and S7 in FIG. FIG. 10 is different in that steps S101 and S102 exist.

  In step S <b> 101, the use application determination unit 308 first selects applications that have been activated from among the applications held by the user, and excludes applications that have not been activated. In the case of the current example, application A is excluded from applications A, B, and F, and applications A and B are selected. Up to this point, the process is the same as step S4 in FIG. Next, the used application determining unit 308 notifies the recommended application selecting unit 310 of the identification information of the selected application.

  In step S102, the recommended application selection unit 310 notifies the application function information storage unit 306 of the notified application identification information, and acquires the application identification information associated with the application of the identification information. For example, in the case of the application A, the recommended application selecting unit 310 notifies the application function information storage unit 306 of the application identification information “A”, and the identification information of one or more applications associated with “A” (For example, applications D and H) are acquired. In the case of the application B, the recommended application selecting unit 310 acquires application identification information (for example, applications C, G, and M) associated with “B”. The application correspondence or similarity is based on the example of FIGS. 5-7.

  The recommended application selection unit 310 selects an application that is actually recommended to the user from one or more applications notified from the application function information storage unit 306. As described above, all of the group of applications notified from the application function information storage unit 306 may actually be recommended. However, when there is a relatively large group of applications notified from the application function information storage unit 306, it is preferable to recommend only applications that are narrowed down based on some criteria to the user.

  As described with reference to FIG. 9, in step S <b> 8, a recommendation signal including information regarding the selected application is transmitted from the distribution server 30 to the communication terminal 10. The user of the communication terminal 10 can determine an application to be downloaded by referring to information (for example, an introduction sentence) regarding the selected application.

  Although the present invention has been described with reference to particular embodiments, they are merely exemplary and those skilled in the art will appreciate various variations, modifications, alternatives, substitutions, and the like. For example, the present invention may be applied to any appropriate mobile communication system that recommends an application to a user. For example, the present invention includes W-CDMA system, HSDPA / HSUPA W-CDMA system, LTE system, LTE-Advanced system, IMT-Advanced system, WiMAX, Wi-Fi system, etc. May be applied. Although specific numerical examples have been described in order to facilitate understanding of the invention, these numerical values are merely examples and any appropriate values may be used unless otherwise specified. The classification of the examples or items is not essential to the present invention, and the items described in two or more items may be used in combination as necessary, and the items described in one item may be combined with other items. It may be applied (as long as it is not inconsistent) to the matters described. For convenience of explanation, an apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention has been described using a functional block diagram, but such an apparatus may be realized by hardware, software, or a combination thereof. The software is available on random access memory (RAM), flash memory, read only memory (ROM), EPROM, EEPROM, registers, hard disk (HDD), removable disk, CD-ROM, database, server and any other suitable storage medium May be. The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and various modifications, modifications, alternatives, substitutions, and the like are included in the present invention without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Communication terminal 20 Mobile communication network 202 Control part 204 Application information acquisition part 206 Application information storage part 208 Notification signal generation part 210 Transmission / reception part 212 Display part 30 Distribution server 302 Transmission / reception part 304 Application function estimation part 306 Application function information storage part 308 Use Application determination unit 310 Recommended application selection unit 40 Application management server

Claims (10)

A distribution server that recommends applications to users,
A receiving unit that receives a notification signal including information on an application owned by the user from the user;
A storage unit that stores application function information that associates applications having the same or similar functions;
An application having the same or similar function as the application owned by the user is identified using the application function information, and a selection unit that selects an application recommended to the user from among the identified applications;
A distribution server comprising: a transmission unit that transmits a recommendation signal indicating the application selected by the selection unit to the user.   The distribution server according to claim 1, wherein the notification signal includes information indicating an application owned by the user and information indicating an activation history of the application.   The selection unit selects an application whose startup history indicates that it has been started, and specifies an application having the same or similar function as the selected application using the application function information. The distribution server according to claim 2, wherein an application recommended for the user is selected from the identified applications. The distribution server further includes an estimation unit that estimates the application function information by analyzing an introduction sentence of each of the plurality of applications,
The distribution server according to claim 1, wherein the application function information is expressed by a function name of an application. The distribution server further includes an estimation unit that estimates the application function information by analyzing an introduction sentence of each of the plurality of applications,
The distribution server according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the application function information is expressed by a correspondence relationship between applications having the same or similar functions.   The selection unit according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein when the selection unit selects an application recommended to the user from the identified applications, the selection unit selects an application having a relatively large number of distributions in the past. The delivery server according to item.   The distribution according to claim 6, wherein the selection unit selects an application that has been distributed in the past and has a relatively large number of installations when selecting an application recommended to the user from among the identified applications. server.   The selection unit according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the selection unit selects an application according to a ranking by a plurality of users when selecting an application recommended to the user from the identified applications. Distribution server.   When the selection unit selects an application to be recommended to the user from among the identified applications, another user who has the same application as the application owned by the user is switched to which application. The distribution server according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein each of the other users is analyzed and an application having a relatively large number of transfers is selected. A distribution method for recommending applications to users,
A notification signal including information on an application owned by the user is received from the user;
Stores application function information that associates the same or similar functions with each other,
An application having the same or similar function as an application owned by the user is identified using the application function information, and an application recommended to the user is selected from the identified applications.
The delivery method which has the step which transmits the recommendation signal which shows the application which the said selection part selected to the said user.

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