Mr Branson announced on Wednesday that virtually every part of his empire - from the largest company, Virgin Atlantic, to one of the smallest, Virgin Bride - would be involved in electronic commerce by the end of the year.

Richard Branson talks to Chris Nuttall

Net access through his Virgin Net Internet Service Provider (ISP) will be free to its existing 150,000 subscribers from April 1 and to the general public from May 1.

The man who tried to go round the world in a balloon has declared his latest challenge is conquering the global network of computers.

Virgin aims to dominate UK Net

With his high profile, the announcement could act as a catalyst for British industry and the public to embrace buying and selling over the Internet. Recent surveys have suggested that UK businesses are losing out to American companies at home and abroad by failing to grasp the advantages of the Web.

"We think we can take on the Americans and beat them," Mr Branson told News Online in an interview.

"I would be surprised if Virgin is not the biggest provider of Net services in Britain within a couple of years," he added.

"We've got the brand name to do it, the will to do it, the resources to do it and we're determined to do it."

Dixons has a lead

But the Virgin boss still has a long way to go to catch up the Dixons' Freeserve ISP, which has accumulated more than a million members in five months.

Reeve: UK prospects are good

William Reeve of Fletcher Research says the £50m announcement obscures the fact that Virgin has been slow to react to Dixons' initiative in only now making Virgin Net free and mounting an e-commerce offensive.

"It stands a good chance in the UK market, some of Virgin's operations are already in areas that are doing well online, for example travel and banking, " he said.

" However, I wouldn't necessarily fancy Virgin's chances of taking on the Americans in their own backyard.

William Reeve of Fletcher Research on the Virgin announcement

"A lot of the successful businesses on the Web rely on the stock market to fuel their growth. Virgin hasn't a very successful history of its relationships with stock market investors, and so whether it's going to compete on equal terms with companies such as Amazon, which has very good investor relations, is a key question."

Members could fill empty seats

Richard Branson views Virgin Net as now having an advantage over its American competitor in the UK, AOL. He believes it can match AOL for content while not charging for the service.

He says members would benefit from special offers from other areas of the business - a cinema still having empty seats at the last minute, or a Virgin plane, for example.

The Web plans include:

• Virgin Net: Free Net access for existing members from April 1, for the public from May 1. Five e-mail addresses. Customer telephone support charged at £1 a minute or £5.99 a month for unlimited calls at a local rate.

• Virgin Atlantic: Website revamp with major e-commerce push and online ticket sales.

• Virgin Megastore: Coming in the next two months, an online music and video store with 60,000 more CDs on offer than Amazon.

• Virgin Trains: The first online rail booking service allowing customers to book tickets to anywhere in mainland UK.

• V2 Music: Unreleased material from bands available as MP3 sound files and live music broadcast from its Website.

• Virgin Direct: Customers will be able to manage all of their financial affairs from buying a house to paying a gas bill over the Net.

• Virgin Bride: A new site to help with the wedding plans, with advice, special events and offers.