YouTube founders launch MixBit, a Vine and Instagram challenger

Step aside. The short-video sharing platform is about to get a little more crowded. YouTube founders Steve Chen and Chad Hurley, as part of AVOS, are about to launch a new social video application called MixBit , which will take on the likes of Vine and Instagram video.

While Vine allows you to shoot and upload six-second videos and Instagram allows you an exorbitant 15 seconds, MixBit will let you upload videos 16 seconds long. Yes, an entire second more than Instagram. After all, it’s now about one-upping the leading service.

Put together 16-second video clips or remix someone else’s

There is one huge difference between a Vine or Instagram video and MixBit, though. One of the features of the service is that it will let you remix others’ video clips and paste an hour-long video on the service. You can combine up to 256 video clips in that hour-long video. This mash-up can then be shared on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and even the MixBit website. The website, which is still being built, will be home to these mashed videos.

Worried about the privacy of videos? MixBit has a slightly unique take on privacy. You will not have usernames on the application. Everyone is completely anonymous and there is no provision for commenting on the clips. These clips can only be remixed by other users who will then post it as a part of their video anonymously. You should probably be careful of what you share on the app, using it more as a storytelling application rather than one you can use to document private moments. This serves a larger market space.

MixBits is already available on iOS and you can download it for free from the App Store. An Android application is said to be in works and should be available in a few weeks.