But the potential seemed great since executive headhunting only amounts to 1%-2% of all recruiting in Beijing and, "we had a feeling that Internet recruiting would become a new medium, " he says.

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O'Brien also owns a network of 42 radio stations in eight European countries, a golf resort community in Portugal, a plane lessor with a fleet of 93 in Dublin and a firm, just two years old, that runs Internet job-recruiting sites in six countries, including eight in China.

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Aslan, who is also the executive editor of the social-networking Web site Mecca.com, said that research has consistently shown that the Internet is not an effective recruiting tool for extremists.

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Over the next two decades, the internet would have a profound effect on the recruiting industry.

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Their startup, called BrassRing, would go after the job-recruiting market by hosting career fairs, running Internet job boards and developing software for corporate personnel departments and university career-placement offices.

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