FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to the field of computer network based services and more particularly, to systems and methods for facilitating sharing of digital subscriptions for one or more services.

BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE

This section is intended to provide information relating to the field of the invention and thus any approach or functionality described below should not be assumed to be qualified as prior art merely by its inclusion in this section.

Subscription based services or products are those where a customer or user pays a recurring price at regular intervals of time to access the service or product. With the digital transformation, subscription based services are becoming increasingly popular. Most of the companies are now earning business from subscription services or even products as opposed to the one-time service or product sales as in the past. Also, subscription based services or products are not only easier and more profitable for the companies selling those services but also for the customers or users who now prefer these services over the traditional one-time sales.

Prevalent examples of subscription based products include beverages such as coffee, beauty products, food products, etc. For example, companies sell coffee machines as a subscription based product wherein they place a coffee machine in the customer's location and re-fill the coffee, milk, sugar, etc. on a regular basis such as monthly or weekly. Similarly, in another example, other companies sell food products based on a subscription model, wherein they send a box of ingredients for a meal that the user can use to cook at home.

Common examples of subscription based services include digital services such as platforms that provide online media streaming such as movies, tv series, videos, etc; platforms providing music/ audio; platforms providing podcasts; etc. For example, subscription based music services allow users access to music content provided by the platform by paying a subscription fee monthly/ quarterly / annually.

The subscription e-commerce market has grown by more than a 100% over the past five years. With this broad and dramatic shift towards the use of subscription based services and products, what has also become popular is a sharing option provided by these companies that allows a consumer to share his/ her subscription with his friends and family. Typically, these services and products are stored in a bundle, such that a limited number of users can access the service or product under one single subscription. This is favorable for the consumers since they are required to pay a single subscription fee for a group of users and are not required to take different subscriptions for each user in the group. In addition, these companies offer discounted prices to the customers for subscribing to bundled multi-user subscriptions, which makes such bundling option more attractive and inviting to the customers.

As the sharing option became commercially viable, marketable and much sought after, many services now offer subscription based services only in bundles. While this is beneficial for the customers, however, since bundled multi-user subscriptions are often offered in limited choices/ plans such as 5 user plan, 10 user plan, etc. it sometimes becomes disadvantageous for the customers if they do not have enough users to avail the plan. Similarly, another situation in which bundled multi-user subscriptions are unfavorable to customers is when they are unable to share the subscription amount/ cost with other users due to social pressure.

Thus, while bundled multi-user subscriptions offer certain advantages, it also has it's own limitations and drawbacks. In view of this there exists an inherent need in the art to provide a solution for facilitating subscription sharing so that the customers can avail the advantages of bundled multi-user subscriptions, while also reducing the drawbacks and limitations associated therewith.

SUMMARY This section is provided to introduce certain objects and aspects of the present disclosure in a simplified form that are further described below in the detailed description. This summary is not intended to identify the key features or the scope of the claimed subject matter.

In order to overcome at least a few problems associated with the known solutions as provided in the previous section, an object of the present invention is to provide a system and method for facilitating sharing of subscriptions between users. Another object of present invention is to provide efficient sharing of the subscription between users so as to optimize the cost splitting between users.

In orderto achieve the afore-mentioned objectives, a first aspect of the present disclosure relates to a server device for facilitating subscription sharing. The server device comprises a transceiver unit, configured to receive, one or more requests from one or more user devices. The transceiver unit is further configured to receive, a subscription information comprising at least an access information of at least one digital subscription, from a subscription service server. The server device further comprises an aggregator, configured to receive, from the one or more user devices via the transceiver unit, at least one request to create at the server device a subscription group for a user account to facilitate at least one digital subscription sharing among two or more members of the subscription group. The aggregator is further configured to create the subscription group of the two or more members based at least on the at least one request to create the subscription group. The server device further comprises a subscription manager, configured to facilitate the at least one digital subscription sharing between each member of the subscription group based at least on at least one group information of the subscription group of two or more members and the subscription information.

A second aspect of the present disclosure relates to a method performed at a server device for facilitating subscription sharing. The method comprises receiving, at the server device via a transceiver unit, one or more requests from one or more user devices. The method further encompasses receiving at the server device via the transceiver unit, a subscription information comprising at least an access information of at least one digital subscription, from a subscription service server. Thereafter, the method comprises receiving at an aggregator from the one or

B more user devices via the transceiver unit, at least one request to create at the server device a subscription group for a user account to facilitate at least one digital subscription sharing among two or more members of the subscription group. Further the method encompasses creating by the aggregator, the subscription group of the two or more members based at least on the at least one request to create the subscription group. Thereafter, the method comprises facilitating by a subscription manager, the at least one digital subscription sharing between each member of the subscription group based at least on at least one group information of the subscription group of two or more members and the subscription information.

Third aspect of the present disclosure relates to a user device for facilitating subscription sharing. The user device comprises a receiver unit, configured to receive a subscription information comprising at least an access to at least one digital subscription, from a subscription service server. Further the user device comprises a transmitter unit, configured to transmit to a server device, at least one request to create at the server device a subscription group for a user account to share the at least one digital subscription among two or more members of the subscription group. The receiver unit is further configured to receive from the server device an information relating to the subscription group created at the server device, wherein the subscription group is created based at least on the at least one request to create the subscription group. Also, the receiver unit is further configured to receive from the server device a subscription sharing facility for each member of the subscription group, wherein the subscription sharing facility is based at least on at least one group information of the subscription group and the subscription information.

Fourth aspect of the present disclosure relates to a method performed at a user device for facilitating subscription sharing. The method comprises receiving by a receiver unit, a subscription information comprising at least an access to at least one digital subscription, from a subscription service server. Thereafter, the method encompasses transmitting by a transmitter unit to a server device, at least one request to create at the server device a subscription group for a user account to share the at least one digital subscription among two or more members of the subscription group. Further the method comprises receiving by the receiver unit from the server device an information relating to the subscription group created at the server device, wherein the subscription group is created based at least on the at least one request to create the subscription group. The method thereafter encompasses receiving by the receiver unit from the server device a subscription sharing facility for each member of the subscription group, wherein the subscription sharing facility is based at least on at least one group information of the subscription group and the subscription information.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated herein, constitute a part of this disclosure. Components in the drawings are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon clearly illustrating the principles of the present disclosure. Some drawings may indicate the components using block diagrams and may not represent the internal circuitry of each component. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that disclosure of such drawings includes disclosure of electrical components or circuitry commonly used to implement such components. Although exemplary connections between sub-components have been shown in the accompanying drawings, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that other connections may also be possible, without departing from the scope of the invention. All sub components within a component may be connected to each other, unless otherwise indicated.

Fig. 1 illustrates a general overview diagram illustrating an implementation of a server device for facilitating subscription sharing in accordance with exemplary embodiments of the present invention.

Fig. 2 illustrates an exemplary architecture diagram of a server device for facilitating subscription sharing in accordance with exemplary embodiments of the present invention.

Fig. 3 illustrates an exemplary method flow diagram depicting a method performed at a server device for facilitating subscription sharing, in accordance with exemplary embodiments of the present invention.

The foregoing shall be more apparent from a more detailed description of the invention below. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DISCLOSURE

In the following description, for the purposes of explanation, various specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments of the present invention. It will be apparent, however, that embodiments of the present invention may be practiced without these specific details. Several features described hereafter can each be used independently of one another or with any combination of other features. An individual feature may not address any of the problems discussed above or might address only some of the problems discussed above. Some of the problems discussed above might not be fully addressed by any of the features described herein. Example embodiments of the present invention are described below, as illustrated in various drawings.

The present invention provides for a system and method for facilitating sharing or splitting of digital subscription between users. The invention encompasses sharing of subscriptions between users in a network bound closed group. As used herein, 'digital subscription' refers to any subscription based service that can be accessed digitally or via a computer/user device by the customers/ users. Also, the digital subscription may comprise a bundled multi-user subscription, wherein the bundled multi-user subscription refers to a digital subscription that can be accessed by multiple (two or more) customers/ users. Also, the terms splitting and sharing have been used interchangeably within the specification, and refer to sharing of a single subscription account between multiple users.

As used herein, a 'subscription account' refers to an account created by a user at a subscription service server at the time of subscribing to a service, wherein the account may be a bundled multi-user account. A bundled multi-user account allows a finite group of users to access the service via a single subscription account.

As used herein, "connect", "configure", "couple" and its cognate terms, such as "connects", "connected", "configured" and "coupled" may include a physical connection (such as a wired/wireless connection), a logical connection (such as through logical gates of semiconducting device), other suitable connections, or a combination of such connections, as may be obvious to a skilled person.

As used herein, "send", "transfer", "transmit", and their cognate terms like "sending", "sent", "transferring", "transmitting", "transferred", "transmitted", etc. include sending or transporting data or information from one unit or component to another unit or component, wherein the content may or may not be modified before or after sending, transferring, transmitting.

As used herein, a "processing unit" or "processor" includes one or more processors, wherein processor refers to any logic circuitry for processing instructions. A processor may be a general- purpose processor, a special purpose processor, a conventional processor, a digital signal processor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in association with a DSP core, a controller, a microcontroller, Application Specific Integrated Circuits, Field Programmable Gate Array circuits, any other type of integrated circuits, etc. The processor may perform signal coding data processing, input/output processing, and/or any other functionality that enables the working of the system according to the present disclosure. More specifically, the processor or processing unit is a hardware processor.

As used herein, "a user equipment", "a user device", "a smart user device", "an electronic device" and the like may be any electrical, electronic and computing device or equipment, capable of implementing the features of the present invention. The user device may include, but is not limited to, a mobile phone, smart phone, laptop, a general-purpose computer, desktop, personal digital assistant, tablet computer, wearable device or any other computing device which is capable of implementing the features of the present invention. The user equipment contains at least one input means configured to receive an input from a user, a processing unit, a storage unit, a display unit, a transceiver unit, a server device and any other such unit/device which is obvious to the person skilled in the art and is capable of implementing the features of the present disclosure.

As used herein, a "transceiver unit" may comprise one or more transmitter units and one or more receiver units, configured to transmit and receive respectively, one or more messages, to implement the features of the present disclosure. The transceiver unit may be any such transmitting and receiving unit known to a person skilled in the art, required to implement the features of the present invention.

As used herein, a "storage unit", a "memory unit" and/or a "memory" refers to a machine or computer-readable medium including any mechanism for storing information in a form readable by a computerorsimilar machine. For example, a computer-readable medium includes read-only memory ("ROM"), random access memory ("RAM"), magnetic disk storage media, optical storage media, flash memory devices or other types of machine-accessible storage media.

The present disclosure is further explained in detail below with reference now to the diagrams.

Referring now to Fig. 1 that illustrates a general overview diagram illustrating an implementation of a server device for facilitating subscription sharing in accordance with exemplary embodiments of the present invention. The server device [102] is connected to one or more user devices [104(1)], [104(2)] ... [104(n)] (collectively referred to as user devices [104]) via a network [103] The user devices [104] are further connected to one or more subscription service servers [108] and also to one or more social networking servers [106] Although, only a limited number of user devices [104] are shown in Fig. 1, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the invention can be implemented with any number of user devices [104] Further, although only one subscription service server [108] and only one social networking server [106] has been shown in Fig. 1, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the invention encompasses use of multiple subscription service servers [108] and social networking servers [106]

The user device [104] is any electronic device used by the user to access a digital subscription service through a subscription service server [108] As used herein, the user device [104], refers to any electrical, electronic, electromechanical and computing device. The user device [104] may include, but not limited to, a mobile phone, a tablet, a smartphone, a laptop, a wearable device, a tablet, e-reader, a phablet, a personal digital assistant and any such device obvious to a person skilled in the art. The user device [104] is connected to the server device [102] via network [103] As used herein, the network [103] may be any wired or wireless communication network capable to transfer data packets between entities of that network. Network [103] may include Internet, intranets, local area networks, mobile communication networks, and combinations thereof.

The user devices [104] are also connected to at least one subscription service server [108] via one or more networks. The subscription service server [108] includes at least a processor, a memory and a transceiver unit (not shown in figure). The transceiver unit of the subscription service server [108] is configured to deliver at least one content to the user devices [104], wherein the at least one content may be delivered via one or more content delivery networks. Further, said transceiver unit is also configured to receive one or more requests from the user devices [104] such as request for availing a service, login/ logout requests, account creation requests, payment requests, etc. In addition, the transceiver unit of the subscription service server [108] is also configured to provide communication between the subscription service server [108] and at least one of the server device [102] and third-party severs such as the social networking servers [106]

The memory unit of the subscription service server [108] comprises one or more databases that stores at least the at least one content to be delivered by the subscription service server [108] to the user devices [104] The memory unit also stores information pertaining to each user/subscription account such as an access information of at least one digital subscription, personal information of the user, account preferences, number of users in a bundled or group account, login information or credentials, etc. The processor of the subscription service server [108] is configured to process the request/s received from at least one of the user devices [104], the server device [102] and the social networking servers [106], and provide the functioning of various features of the subscription service server [108]

The social networking servers [106] are the servers of one or more social networking applications used by the user on his/her user devices [104] The social networking server [106] includes at least a processor, a memory and a transceiver unit (not shown in figure). The transceiver unit of the social networking servers [106] is configured to deliver one or more social networking contents and services to the user devices [104] Further, said transceiver unit is also configured to receive one or more requests from the user device [104] such as request for availing a social networking service, login/ logout requests, account creation requests, payment requests, etc. In addition, the transceiver unit of the social networking servers [106] is also configured to receive requests from the server device [102] and/or third-party severs such as the subscription service server [108]

The memory unit of the social networking server [106] comprises one or more databases that store data relating to the one or more social networking contents and services to be delivered by the social networking server [106] to at least one of the user devices [104], the subscription service server [108] and the server device [102] Further, said memory unit also stores information pertaining to each user account, personal information of the user, account preferences, login information or credentials, etc. The processor of the social networking server [106] is configured to process the requests received from at least one of the user devices [104], the server device [102] and the subscription service server [108] and provide the functioning of various features of social networking server [106]

Referring now to Fig. 2, that illustrates an exemplary architecture diagram of a server device [102] for facilitating subscription sharing in accordance with exemplary embodiments of the present invention. The server device [102] comprises a transceiver unit [202], a memory unit [204] and a processing unit [206], all connected to each other. The processing unit [206] is further connected to an aggregator [208], a group recommender [210] and a subscription manager [212]

The transceiver unit [202] comprises a transmitter and a receiver unit (not shown in figure). The transceiver unit [202] is configured to receive one or more requests from one or more user devices [104] via the network [103] The transceiver unit [202] is further configured to enable a communication between the server device [102] and a social networking server [106] Also, the transceiver unit [202] is configured to receive from the social networking server [106] an information relating to one or more user contacts associated with the one or more user devices [104] based on the communication between the server device [102] and the social networking server [106] Further, the transceiver unit [202] is configured to enable a communication between the server device [102] and a subscription service server [108] Further, the transceiver unit [202] is also configured to receive at the server device [102], a subscription information of a subscription account from a subscription service server [108] based on the communication between the server device [102] and subscription service server [108] The subscription information of the subscription account comprises at least an access information of at least one digital subscription. The at least one digital subscription comprises at least one bundled multi-user subscription.

The processing unit [206] is configured to receive one or more requests from the transceiver unit [202] and process the same. In an implementation, if an account creation request is received at the processing unit [206] from the one or more user devices [104] via the transceiver unit [202], the processing unit [206] is configured to generate at the server device [102], a user account for a user one or more user devices [104] based at least on the account creation request. Also, the processing unit [206] to create the user account is configured to send a request for certain information such as username, password, email address, etc. to the one or more user devices [104] via the transceiver [202] Thereafter, the processing unit [206] is configured to create, at the server device [102], a network of users for the user account based at least on an information relating to one or more user contacts associated and/or stored at the one or more user devices [104] The information relating to one or more user contacts associated/stored with the one or more user devices comprises an information of contact/s of contact/s in a successive manner. For example, if a user contact A (associated with a user device A) is connected to a user contact B (associated with a user device B) and the user contact B is further connected to a user contact C (associated with a user device C), the information relating to one or more user contacts associated with the user device A encompasses one or more details of user contacts A, B, C and so on in a successive order.

Also, the processing unit [206] is further configured to create the network of users by adding one or more users in a successive chain of a plurality of users, wherein each user in the network of users is associated with a respective unique device ID. Each user in the network of users is associated with a respective unique device ID to avoid duplication of the user/s in the network of users.

The memory unit [204] is configured to store at least one user account information for each of the user accounts created at the server device [102] The user account information may include but is not limited to, username, password, account type, payment mode, etc. The account type is associated with the subscription account and may refer to a bundled multi-user account that allows access to a finite number of users. The memory unit [204] may also be configured to store historical information such as logins requests, access requests, which user is currently using a service, etc. The memory unit [204] is also configured to store the network of users for each user/ user account, wherein the network of users/user network is created by the processing unit [206] by adding users in successive chains of user thread creation. The memory unit [204] is also configured to store details of a user's contacts, friends and relatives from either the user device [104] or from one or more social networking servers [106] This storage is subject to the user providing permission to access such details by the server device [102]

The aggregator [208] is configured to receive from the one or more user devices [104] via the transceiver unit [202], at least one request to create at the server device [102] a subscription group corresponding to the user account created by the processing unit [206], to facilitate at least one digital subscription sharing among two or more members of the subscription group. In an implementation, said request may include but is not limited to at least one contact information of one or more members of the subscription group. Thereafter, the aggregator [208] is configured to create the subscription group of the two or more members based at least on the at least one request to create the subscription group. The members of the subscription group comprises at least a user of the one or more user devices [104] and one or more other users from the network of users. Also, the members of the subscription group are unique to each other and associated with their respective unique device ID.

Furthermore, in an implementation to create the subscription group of two or more users, the aggregator [208] is firstly configured to create at the server device [102], a temporary subscription group of such two or more members. Thereafter, the aggregator [208] is configured to send via the transceiver unit [202] to at least one user device [104] of each of the members of the temporary group, a request for approval of the created temporary subscription group. The aggregator [208] is configured to create the subscription group once all the members of the group approve the request. More specifically, the aggregator [208] is further configured to create, at the server device [102], the subscription group of two or more users based on a receipt of a confirmation from the at least one user device [104] of each member from the temporary subscription group via the transceiver unit [202] The aggregator [208] also sends such group information for storage to the memory unit [204]

Further, the processing unit [206] is also configured to receive, from the one or more user devices [104] via the transceiver unit [202], at least one request for addition of at least one new member to at least one subscription group. The processing unit [206] is thereafter configured to fetch, from the memory unit [204], a user account information of the at least one subscription group. Also, the processing unit [206] thereafter analyses, the user account information to identify a user capacity of the at least one subscription group. The user capacity of the at least one subscription group is associated with the access information of the at least one digital subscription (i.e. number of users allowed to access the at least one digital subscription). Thereafter, the processing unit [206] is configured to add, the at least one new member to the at least one subscription group based on the identified user capacity. More specifically, in an event if the processing unit [206] identifies that one or more members can be added based on a number of users allowed to access a digital subscription, the processing unit [206] in said event adds, the at least one new member to the at least one group/ subscription group. Also considering an example, if a request for addition of a new member to a subscription group is received at the processing unit [206], the processing unit [206] is configured to fetch from the memory unit [204] the existing user account information for the subscription group and validate the same to ensure that the subscription group can accommodate another user entering the group, the request is a duplicate request already received before, whether the user intended to be added to the group is a valid user, etc.

The group recommender unit [210] is configured to transmit to the one or more user devices [104] via the transceiver unit [202], one or more subscription group recommendations based on one or more subscription groups created via the aggregator [208] To provide one or more

IB subscription group recommendations, the aggregator [208] is configured to create one or more subscription groups based on at least one of an information relating to one or more user contacts corresponding to one or more user accounts and a network of users corresponding to the one or more user accounts. The information relating to the one or more user contacts corresponding to the one or more user accounts is received from at least one of the one or more user devices [104] and the social networking server [106] Further, the aggregator [208] also sends such subscription group recommendation information for storage to the memory unit [204] In an implementation the memory unit [204] is also configured to store a relationship information between members of the subscription groups. Relationships are maintained in order to show/recommend via the group recommender unit [210], different subscription groups available to users with respect to each other. The memory unit [104] also maintains, dynamically and in real-time, the subscription group of users associated with each user account and a cost of subscription for each user in the group.

The group recommender unit [210] is also configured to recommend one or more subscription groups created by one or more contacts of the user of the one or more user devices [104] For instance, if a contacts of the user have already created a subscription group for a subscription service, then the user may be recommended to join that group and share the cost.

The subscription manager [212] is configured to facilitate the at least one digital subscription sharing between each member of the subscription group based at least on at least one group information of the subscription group of two or more members and the subscription information. More specifically, to facilitate the at least one digital subscription sharing, the subscription manager [212] is configured to calculate a cost of subscription of the at least one digital subscription, wherein the cost of subscription is calculated for each member of the subscription group. The cost of subscription to each user/member may be based on a cost of subscription of the subscription group, number of days in a month, number of days a subscription is used and number of members in a subscription group.

Furthermore, in an implementation the cost to be paid by each user/member of a subscription group G with cost X and N number of member capacity consisting of Y users at any single point of time is calculated with the following: Cost of G = X/Y where Y is greater than equal to 1 and less than equal to N, wherein

G: Group of any single or multiple digital subscriptions X: Cost of any group

N: Maximum Number of members allowed in a group

Y: Number of members present inside the group at any point of time

For instance, to calculate the cost of a streaming service subscription group of cost 800 rupees which can have maximum 4 users at the time where 2 users have joined the group, the cost would be 400 rupees per user according to the above. In this example value of N is 4, value of X is 800 and value of Y is 2.

For the first joining month of any group the cost calculations are performed in order to minimize losses and spread costs between group users. If any user joins the group, the calculations are started from that day until the renewal date of next month one day before. For example, if the subscription is joined by the user on 2nd of April, the next billing date would be 1st of May.

When the second user joins the group, the first user is charged a particular amount of money based on the number of days gap between the second and first user joining the group. This is done on the basis of following below.

CTIU = ((X/Number of days in the month) *MU)/Y where MU is less than equal to Number of days of the month, wherein

MU: Number of days group subscription is used CTIU: Cost to initial users

For instance, in the above example, if the date on which the user 1 joined the group is 2nd of April and the second user joins the same group on 5th of April. The first user who paid 800 rupees for the subscription group, will be charged 80 rupees. Here X is 800 rupees and Number of days in the month is 30, MU is 3 and Y is 1. New Subscription cost of the group for the remaining month before renewal is calculated with the formula below.

N MC = (X - CTI U )/Y

Extending the above example, the users will now have a new group cost of 360 rupees each for the group and the 80 rupees extra cost has already been paid by the initial user. Here X is 800, CTIU is 80 and Y is 2.

The initial users will be refunded the remaining amount as their initial cost has been split with the new users joining the same group. This is done using the formula below.

RATIU = (X - CTIU - NMC), wherein

NMC: New Month Cost

RATIU: Refund Amount to initial users

Further extending the example, the initial users will be refunded 360 rupees. Here X is 800, CTIU is 80 and NMC is 360.

Similar calculation can be performed for any variable number of X, N, Y, MU to calculate the costs of the group to increase cost efficiency and add value to group subscriptions sharing or splitting.

Referring now to Figure 3, that illustrates a method flow diagram depicting a method performed at a server device [102] for facilitating subscription sharing, in accordance with exemplary embodiments of the present invention. As shown in Fig. 3, the method begins at step [302]

At step [304], the method comprises receiving, at the server device [102] via a transceiver unit [202], one or more requests from one or more user devices [104] via a network [103]

The method thereafter encompasses enabling via the transceiver unit [202], a communication between the server device [102] and a social networking server [106] Also, the method thereafter comprises receiving at the server device [102] via transceiver unit [202] from the social networking server [106], an information relating to one or more user contacts associated with the one or more user devices [104] based on the communication between the server device [102] and the social networking server [106]

Thereafter, the method comprises enabling via the transceiver unit [202] a communication between the server device [102] and a subscription service server [108] Next at step [306], based on the communication between the server device [102] and subscription service server [108], the method comprises receiving at the server device [102] via the transceiver unit [202], a subscription information of a subscription account from a subscription service server [108] The subscription information of the subscription account comprises at least an access information of at least one digital subscription. The at least one digital subscription comprises at least one bundled multi-user subscription.

The method further comprises receiving at the processing unit [206], one or more requests from the transceiver unit [202] and thereafter processing the same via the processing unit [206] In an implementation, if an account creation request is received at the processing unit [206] from the one or more user devices [104] via the transceiver unit [202], the method encompasses generating, by processing unit [206] at the server device [102], a user account for a user one or more user devices [104] based at least on the account creation request. Also, to create the user account the method further encompasses sending via the processing unit [206], a request for certain information such as username, password, email address, etc. to the one or more user devices [104] via the transceiver [202] Thereafter, the method comprises creating, by the processing unit [206], a network of users for the user account based at least on an information relating to one or more user contacts stored/associated with the one or more user devices [104] The information relating to one or more user contacts associated/stored with the one or more user devices comprises an information of contact/s of contact/s in a successive manner. For example, if a user contact A of a user device A is connected with a user contact B of a user device B and the user contact B is further connected with a user contact C of a user device C, the information relating to one or more user contacts associated with the user device A encompasses one or more details of user contacts A, B, C and so on in a successive order. Also, the method encompasses creating via the processing unit [206] the network of users by adding one or more users in a successive chain of a plurality of users, wherein each user in the network of users is associated with a respective unique device ID. Each user in the network of users is associated with a respective unique device ID to avoid duplication of the user/s in the network of users.

The method also encompasses storing by a memory unit [204] at least one user account information for each of the user accounts created at the server device [102] The user account information may include but is not limited to, username, password, account type, payment mode, etc. The account type is associated with the subscription account of the user of the one or more user devices [104] and the account type may refer to a bundled multi-user account that allows access to a finite number of users. The method may also comprises storing at the memory unit [204] a historical information such as logins requests, access requests, which user is currently using a service, etc. The method also encompasses storing at the memory unit [204], a network of users for each user/ user account, wherein the network of users/user network is created by the processing unit [206] by adding users in successive chains of user thread creation. In an implementation, the method also encompasses storing at the memory unit [204], one or more details of a user's contacts, friends and/or relatives from either the user device [104] or from one or more social networking servers [106] This storage is subject to the user providing permission to access such details by the server device [102]

Next at step [308], the method comprises receiving at an aggregator [208] from the one or more user devices [104] via the transceiver unit [202], at least one request to create at the server device [102] a subscription group for the user account to facilitate at least one digital subscription sharing among two or more members of the subscription group. In an implementation, said request may include but is not limited to at least one contact information of one or more members of the subscription group.

Next step [310], the method comprises creating by the aggregator [208], the subscription group of the two or more members based at least on the at least one request to create the subscription group. The members of the subscription group comprises at least a user of the one or more user devices [104] and one or more other users from the network of users. Also, the members of the subscription group are unique to each other and associated with their respective unique device ID.

Furthermore, in an implementation the method for creating by the aggregator [208], the subscription group of the two or more members further comprises creating, by the aggregator [208] at the server device [102], a temporary subscription group of two or more members. Thereafter, the method encompasses transmitting, from the aggregator [208] via the transceiver unit [202] to at least one user device of each member of the temporary subscription group, a request for approval for the created temporary subscription group. Further, the method comprises creating, by the aggregator [208] at the server device [102], the subscription group of two or more users based on a receipt of a confirmation from the at least one user device of each member from the temporary subscription group via the transceiver unit [202] The method also encompasses sending via the aggregator [208] such group information of the subscription group for storage to the memory unit [204]

The method also encompasses receiving, at the processing unit [206] from the one or more user devices [104] via the transceiver unit [202], at least one request for addition of at least one new member to at least one subscription group. The method further comprises fetching, by the processing unit [206] from the memory unit [204], a user account information of the at least one subscription group. The method then encompasses analysing, by the processing unit [206], the user account information to identify a user capacity of the at least one subscription group. The user capacity of the at least one subscription group is associated with the access information of the at least one digital subscription (i.e. number of users allowed to access the at least one digital subscription). Further, the method encompasses adding, by the processing unit [206], the at least one new member to the at least one group based on the identified user capacity. More particularly, the method encompasses adding the at least one new member to the at least one subscription group only in an event the subscription group can accommodate another user entering the group based on the user capacity.

The method also comprises transmitting by a group recommender unit [210] via the transceiver unit [202] to the one or more user devices [104], one or more subscription group recommendations based on one or more subscription groups created via the aggregator [208] To provide one or more subscription group recommendations, the method encompasses creating by the aggregator [208], one or more subscription groups based on at least one of an information relating to one or more user contacts corresponding to one or more user accounts and a network of users corresponding to the one or more user accounts. The information relating to the one or more user contacts corresponding to the one or more user accounts is received from at least one of the one or more user devices [104] and the social networking server [106] Further, the method via the aggregator [208] also sends such subscription group recommendation information for storage to the memory unit [204] In an implementation the method encompasses storing by the memory unit [204] a relationship information between members of the subscription groups. Relationships are maintained in order to show/recommend via the group recommender unit [210], different subscription groups available to users with respect to each other. The method also comprises maintaining via the memory unit [104], dynamically and in real-time, the subscription group of users associated with each user account and a cost of subscription for each user in the group.

The method also encompasses recommending via the group recommender unit [210], one or more subscription groups created by one or more contacts of the user of the one or more user devices [104] For instance, if a contacts of the user have already created a subscription group for a subscription service, then the user may be recommended to join that group and share the cost.

Next step [312], the method comprises facilitating by a subscription manager [212], the at least one digital subscription sharing between each member of the subscription group based at least on at least one group information of the subscription group of two or more members and the subscription information. More specifically, to facilitate the at least one digital subscription sharing, the method encompasses calculating via the subscription manager [212], a cost of subscription of the at least one digital subscription, wherein the cost of subscription is calculated for each member of the subscription group. The cost of subscription to each user/member may be based on a cost of subscription of the subscription group, number of days in a month, number of days a subscription is used and number of members in a subscription group.

After facilitating the subscription sharing, the method then terminates at step [314]

Further, an aspect of the present disclosure relates to a user device [104] for facilitating subscription sharing. The user device [104] comprises a receiver unit, configured to receive a subscription information of a subscription account comprising at least an access to at least one digital subscription, from a subscription service server [108] The at least one digital subscription comprises at least one bundled multi-user subscription. Further the user device [104] comprises a transmitter unit, configured to transmit to a server device [102], at least one request to create at the server device [102] a subscription group for a user account to share the at least one digital subscription among two or more members of the subscription group. The user account is generated at the server device [102] based at least on an account creation request transmitted from the user device [104] to the server device [102]

The receiver unit is further configured to receive from the server device [102] an information relating to the subscription group created at the server device [102], wherein the subscription group is created based at least on the at least one request to create the subscription group. The members of subscription group comprises at least a user of the one or more user devices [104] and one or more other users from a network of users. The network of users is created by the processing unit [206] at the server device [102] based at least on an information relating to one or more user contacts associated with the one or more user devices.

Also, the receiver unit is further configured to receive from the server device [102] a subscription sharing facility for each member of the subscription group, wherein the subscription sharing facility is based at least on at least one group information of the subscription group and the subscription information. The subscription sharing facility may comprise a cost of subscription to each user/member of the subscription group calculated based on a cost of subscription of the subscription group, number of days in a month, number of days a subscription is used and number of members in a subscription group. Also, another aspect of the present disclosure relates to a method performed at a user device [104] for facilitating subscription sharing. The method comprises receiving by a receiver unit, a subscription information of a subscription account comprising at least an access to at least one digital subscription, from a subscription service server [108] The at least one digital subscription comprises at least one bundled multi-user subscription. Thereafter, the method encompasses transmitting by a transmitter unit to a server device [102], at least one request to create at the server device [102] a subscription group for a user account to share the at least one digital subscription among two or more members of the subscription group. The user account is generated at the server device [102] based at least on an account creation request transmitted from the user device [104] to the server device [102]

Further the method comprises receiving by the receiver unit from the server device [102] an information relating to the subscription group created at the server device [102], wherein the subscription group is created based at least on the at least one request to create the subscription group. The members of subscription group comprises at least a user of the one or more user devices [104] and one or more other users from a network of users. The network of users is created by the processing unit [206] at the server device [102] based at least on an information relating to one or more user contacts associated with the one or more user devices.

The method thereafter encompasses receiving by the receiver unit from the server device [102] a subscription sharing facility for each member of the subscription group, wherein the subscription sharing facility is based at least on at least one group information of the subscription group and the subscription information. The subscription sharing facility may comprise a cost of subscription to each user/member of the subscription group calculated based on a cost of subscription of the subscription group, number of days in a month, number of days a subscription is used and number of members in a subscription group.

As evident from the above disclosure, the present solution provides significant technical advancement by facilitating a subscription sharing among various users. The present invention provides a solution for efficient sharing of a digital subscription between two or more users by creating one or more subscription groups for such two or more users. Also present invention facilitates the subscription cost sharing based on a specific network of users. Therefore based on the implementation of the features of the present invention cost splitting between two or more users can be optimized efficiently and effectively.

While considerable emphasis has been placed herein on the disclosed embodiments, it will be appreciated that many embodiments can be made and that many changes can be made to the embodiments without departing from the principles of the present disclosure. These and other changes in the embodiments of the present disclosure will be apparent to those skilled in the art, whereby it is to be understood that the foregoing descriptive matter to be implemented is illustrative and non-limiting.