Google to launch email bill pay: Report

Google (GOOGL) wants to help you pay bills.

The tech giant is reportedly developing a project called "Pony Express," which will allow Gmail users to view and pay bills directly from their email. According to a document reviewed by Re/code, the service is expected to start later this year.

It is unclear whether Google plans to generate revenue from the service. While Google could use the financial data to refine its advertisements, Yahoo Finance’s Aaron Task thinks Google will try to recoup revenue in other ways.

“I think that it's a potentially very profitable area for the company because I'm sure there will be some charge that they will add-on for that service, whether they charge you as the consumer or they charge the company that's billing you,” he says.

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Task notes that Google's "Pony Express" could be a way to expand its payment system, Google Wallet.

“I think it's also their attempt to put a competition out there for Apple Pay (AAPL), which is starting to generate some traction, and Google hasn't been very successful with its Android payment system,” he says. “This is kind of a backdoor way to get into payments, and payments is the next great frontier for mobile. If you're doing it on your email there is no reason why you could do it on your phone."

Success of the Gmail payment system may depend on younger generations, Task adds.

“I think a lot of people my age and older are still a little bit squeamish about doing something, financial transactions online. Whereas the kids... the millennials, they will do everything on their phone it makes sense for them to experiment with this," he says. "We'll see how it plays out, but if it is something that the consumer wants, then yes, the providers of the services that are going to be sending you a bill will probably want to team up with Google on this.”