Is Gumtree really owned by eBay?

[nerakrules]

I was just reading through eBays forums and found a statement about eBay being the owners of Gum tree..
So is this true?
I've had a bit of a look about Gumtree.com and can't find any ref to it at all
I don't really like the idea of getting suckered into using gumtree only to find down the track it's all going to get costly
SO.. if ebay does own gumtree does this mean we're going to be charged eventually or are they going to leave it as it is?

I love gumtree.. only used it a few times and still find the same probs with buyers on here as with ebay (no contact and putting off picking up and paying) but at least gumtree can't take fees out of your bank account when you don't want them to.

[byanka82]

If you receive a reply from someone on gumtree, and copy/paste the full header of their email into the following link, you'll find that the origin always says 'ebay'. (I just did this when I got scammed recently, to trace the email, and discovered this by accident)

http://www.ip-adress.com/trace_email/

[natteronline]

Yes, eBay does own Gumtree. I am not sure how it funds it or whether it makes money from Gumtree. I think eBay acquired social networking sites to create an audience of users who habitually use various sites for different purposes but their "rabbit runs" round the Internet bring them back to eBay. Also as Gumtree looked like it was taking off as a trading site alternative to eBay eBay wanted to share in that growth. After all, the Internet is still young and no one really knows how it will develop. You can now sell items on Facebook, but is it a rival to eBay? I doubt it, not yet anyway.
I don't think you have to worry about eBay making money out of you here. EBay is probably praying you continue using Gumtree as you do now.

[3156]