Orion has a share in five major markets – South Korea, Russia, Vietnam and China, and Canada. Around 12.1 billion Choco Pies have been sold all over the world. Starting in the 2000s, Orion began using the Choco Pie to gain a foothold in foreign markets, and now controls a two-thirds share of the Chinese snack market, with a third of Orion's revenue coming from outside Korea in 2006. Strawberry Choco Pie was sold as a limited edition Choco PieĬhoco Pie entered the Russian market in the Far East region after the fall of Soviet Union in the beginning of the 1990s and quickly became popular among Russian population, kids and adults alike. The product is a reinterpretation of the chocolate pie as a holiday cake concept for the end of the year and consists of a chocolate cake filled with chocolate berry syrup and marshmallow. In January 2021, Orion launched its first winter limited edition, 'Choco Pie Chung Happy Berry Chocolate', 46 years after its establishment. 3 weeks after launching, over a 5 million of accumulated number of pies were sold.
It is covered in pink-colored chocolate instead of the usual dark brown color. In 2020, it launched Choco Pie Strawberry Blossom. In 2019, Orion launched a new edition with pistachio and berry flavor. In 2017, Orion launched Choco Pie Strawberry, which has strawberry jam inside the marshmallow. Orion has launched springs seasonal-limited edition of Choco Pie ever since the year of 2017. Due to the product line's launch, overall Choco Pie sales in January and February increased by about 20% compared to the same period last year. Chal Choco Pie has 2 flavors of inseolmi and black sesame rice cake. In 2020, Orion released Chal (meaning "chewy" in Korean) Choco Pie to celebrate Choco Pie's 45th anniversary. In 2017, Orion launched its premium choco pie brand "Choco Pie House". It is the first variation of the original product in 42 years since the company launched the Choco Pie with marshmallow cream in 1974. In 2016, Orion released a banana-flavored Choco Pie to celebrate its 60th anniversary. The court ruled, however, that Tongyang was responsible for having allowed its brand name to become, over time, a generic trademark and that the term "choco pie" was to be considered a common noun due to its generic descriptive sense in reference to confections of similar composition. In 1999, after many years of sales of different "Choco Pie" products, Tongyang (Orion) filed a lawsuit against Lotte for their use of the term "Choco Pie", claiming that the name was their intellectual property. Lotte also began selling as Choco Pie in Japan in 1983. Haitai and Crown Confectionery also began selling their own versions of choco pies. Tongyang had been using " 쵸" ("Chyo"), while Lotte began using " 초" ("Cho"). When Lotte Confectionery put the Lotte Choco Pie on the market, it chose to spell the prefix slightly differently in Hangul from how Tongyang was spelling it. In 1979, Lotte Confectionery began to sell a similar confection. There is a related historical connection as this bakery is prevalent only near the traditional Hanok villages of Jeonju. This earlier timeline indicates an earlier existence of a variation of the treat in Korean history. PNB, a bakery company founded in 1951 in Jeonju, South Korea, is famous for its traditional choco pie confectionaries. Tongyang Confectionery later renamed the company Orion Confectionery thanks to the success of the Orion Choco Pie brand. The name "Choco Pie" became popular when Tongyang first released the Orion Choco Pie, and was well received by Korean children, as well as the elderly, because of its affordable price and white marshmallow filling. He returned to South Korea and began experimenting with a chocolate biscuit cake, creating the “choco pie” as it is known to Koreans.
In 1973, a member of the R&D team of the Korean firm Tongyang Confectionery visited a hotel in Georgia, US, and was inspired by the chocolate-coated sweets available in the hotel's restaurant.
In 1961, a Japanese confectionery company Morinaga & Company started selling Enzeru Pie (エンゼルパイ, Angel Pie) which was developed with reference to Scooter Pie, a version of Moon Pie. In 1929, Chattanooga Bakery created the Moon Pie with marshmallow filling and Graham crackers for local miners in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Variations of the original go back to as far as 1917 in the southern United States.