POINT MANAGEMENT APPARATUS, SYSTEM, AND METHOD

A point management apparatus includes a storage device configured to store point information about points awarded to a user, the point information including a point ID for identifying the points, a point rate indicating an amount of money per unit point of the points, a stock price and the number of shares of a designated company of when purchased as capital for the points, a user ID for identifying the user, a balance of points owned by the user identified by the user ID, and stock information about a stock of the designated company, which is used to calculate the balance of the points, an arithmetic circuit configured to update the balance of the points owned by the user, which is stored in the storage device, by calculating, based on a new stock price of the designated company, the balance of the points owned by the user read out from the storage device, and the stock information read out from the storage device, the balance of the points owned by the user, and a terminal processing circuit configured to read out, in response to a request from the user, the balance of the points owned by the user from the storage device, and notify a terminal apparatus of the user of the balance via the communication network. Point management system and method are also disclosed.